
ClassJSB^S^i- 
Book_ • ij 4- 



. 



LIGHT 



THE DARK PLACES 

OR, 

MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES, 



FROM THE GERMAN OF THE LATE 
'A 

AUGUSTUS NEANDEE, 

FIRST PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IX THE ROYAL 
UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN. 



NetB-lOork : 






PUBLISHED BY LANE & SCOTT, 

200 Mulberry-street. 
JOSEPH LONGKING, PRINTER, 

1851. 



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In Exoa&afle 
Drew Theolofl. Sam, 

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PREFACE 

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



Neander's aim, in the work from which this 
volume is a translation, was to employ the 
most striking facts of Church History for 
general Christian edification. The faith, the 
zeal, and the piety of the early missionaries 
and martyrs of the Church, and the Christian 
life of individuals, and even of communities, 
amid periods of darkness and delusion, are 
commemorated here with that genial sympa- 
thy for pure religion, however and wherever 
manifested, which so strongly characterized 
Xeander. His charity may, in some few in- 
stances appear excessive ; but excess of love is 
so rare, that it may well be excused. 

J. M'Clintock. 

April 10, 1851. 



PREFACE, 



When a child is frightened at any strange 
apparition, the best remedy is to lead him up 
to it; and when men have been accustomed 
to pay homage to some wonder-working image, 
the most effectual argument against their 
idolatry has sometimes been found to show 
them how the idol is made. Many have, per- 
haps, been led to make one or other of these 
mistakes with regard to the Middle Ages ; 
the long shadows of the past so easily convert 
common things into miracles or monsters. 
It is hoped that the simple narratives con- 
tained in this volume may help, in some de- 
gree, to remove both mistakes, by showing 
things as they are. 



O PREFACE, 

This little work is a translation of the 
Second Part of Neander's " Denkwurcligkeiten 
aus der Geschichte des christlichen Lebens," 
which may be regarded as a popular and prac- 
tical supplement to his " History of the Chris- 
tian Eeligion and Church." 

The translator would feel the toil of many 
summer hours amply rewarded, should this 
volume tend in any measure to strengthen 
our reverent love for the good men of other 
times, whilst manifesting their mistakes ; to 
lessen any blind homage for the " golden 
mean" of time, whilst unveiling the lights 
which have shone before those who watched 
for them in the darkest ages ; to dispel any 
sentimental worship of times and seasons, and 
human institutions ; and at the same time to 
enlarge our sympathies with that holy Church 
of the redeemed and the regenerate, which is 
catholic amongst the centuries as well as 
amongst the nations. 

She will look on her labours as indeed 



PREFACE. 



blessed, should they be the means of leading 
one dark heart into the path of light, or one 
sick soul to Him who healeth " all manner 
of sickness, and all manner of disease," or one 
languid disciple to more effective service, by 
the inspiration of holy example. We have, 
all of us, but a little while to prove how we 
love Him, who has so loved us ; and it will be 
no small thing to have the gracious approval 
of the " faithful servant" added to the recog- 
nition of the forgiven child. 

May we also, with Dr. Xeander, as with 
all human teachers, remember that they are 
" ours" — not we " theirs ;" not, indeed, in the 
spirit of <; right" and self-will, but of lowlier 
subjection to a loftier guide — and of that true 
loyalty to our Lord, which makes all hero- 
worship for us not only idolatry, but treason. 
And now that his words come to us with the 
touching solemnity of a voice which death 
has so recently silenced, may we listen to 
them, and learn from them, in the spirit 



6 PREFACE. 

which he would desire from the place of rest 
to which God has taken him, where all the 
broken glimpses of truth, which cause error 
and division here, are filled up ; and he 
has, ere this, learned to know even as he is 
known, 



CONTENTS, 



PART I. 

OPERATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY DURING AND AFTER 
THE IRRUPTION OF THE BARBARIANS. 

Introduction Page 11 

1. The North African "Church under the Vandals 13 
(Martyrs. — Eugenius, Bishop of Carthage 22 

Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe) 31 

2. Severinus un Germany 36 

8. Labours of Pious Men in France 50 

a. GERMANUS OF AuXERRE 50 

b. Lupus of Troyes 54: 

c. Cesarius of Arles 56 

d. Epiphanies of Pa via 96 

e. Eligius of Xoyon 98 

(Archanefreda. Mother of Desiderius 98 

Desederius of Cahors) Ill 

/. The Abbots Euroul and Loumon 115 

4. Gregory the Great. Bishop of Rome 117 

5. Christianity in Poverty and Lowliness, and on 

the Sick Bed , 146 



10 CONTENTS, 



PART II. 

MEMOIRS FROM THE HISTORY OF MISSIONS IN THE 
MIDDLE AGES. 

1. General Remakes on the History of Missions 

in this Age Page 150 

Christianity in its relations to Barbarism 

and Civilization 151 

Manifold modes of Conversion 158 

Death of the Venerable Bede , 162 

2. The Llfe and Labours of individual Missionaries 173 

a. Patrick, Apostle of the Irish 173 

b. COLUMBAN * 187 

c. Gallus, Apostle of Switzerland 211 

d. Boniface, Apostle of the Germans 217 

e. Gregory, Abbot of Utrecht 243 

/. Sturm, Abbot of Fulda 247 

g. Alcuin on tbue Missionary Labours 251 

fl. LlNDGER AND WlLLEHAD 256 

i. Anschar, Apostle of the North 261 

/. The Martyr Adalbert in Prussia 272 

h. The Monk Nilus... 277 

I. Otho of Bamberg, Apostle of the Pomera- 
nians 294 

w.Raymond Lull 320 



MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE 

IN 

THE MIDDLE AGES. 



PART I. 

OPERATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY DURING- AND AFTER THE 
CONFUSION PRODUCED BY THE IRRUPTION OF THE 
BARBARIANS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

In the fifth century we see destruction fall on the 
empire of the city which called itself eternal ; and 
even the great ecclesiastical institutions, the fruit 
of the blood of martyrs and the prolonged labours 
of enlightened and pious doctors, swept away by 
the tide of this mighty devastation. But whilst 
the heathen mourned hopelessly over the grave of 
these earthly splendours, and saw, despairingly, 
the old forms of civilization perish before the in- 
roads of barbarism, good Christians held fast to 
the anchor of hope, on which they could raise 
themselves above all mutable things, and by which 
they could find a firm footing in the very midst of 
this torrent of destruction. They knew, that " hea- 
ven and earth should pass away, but that the 



12 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

words of their Lord should not pass away ;" and 
these words gave them, in the midst of death, an 
inexhaustible spring of life. The existing ecclesias- 
tical forms, as far as they were connected with the 
constitution of the Roman empire, might indeed 
perish in the universal desolation ; but the essence 
of the Church, as of Christianity, could be touched 
by no destroyer ; and this manifested itself the 
more triumphantly in these times of decrepitude 
and decay for the world, as the living principle of 
a new creation. 

In that age of impending ruin, a Christian Doctor 
writes thus (probably Leo the Great, before he be- 
came bishop) : — 

" The very weapons by which the world is de- 
vastated, minister to the operations of Christian 
grace. How many, who, during the calm of peace, 
deferred their baptism, are now driven by the mo- 
mentary fear of peril to be baptized ! How many 
slothful and lukewarm spirits are there, on whom 
imminent terror has effected what quiet exhorta- 
tions could never accomplish ! Many sons of the 
Church, who have fallen into captivity among their 
enemies, have made known the Gospel to their 
masters, and have become the teachers of those 
into whose bondage they had fallen by the lot of 
war. Others of the barbarians who served among 
the Roman mercenaries, have by this means learned 
amongst us, what they could not have learned in 
their fatherland, and have returned to their homes 
instructed in Christianity. Thus nothing can hin- 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH, 13 

der the divine grace from accomplishing what it 
designs : so that strife conduces to unity, wounds 
are converted into the means of cure, and that 
•which threatens danger to the Church is constrain- 
ed to further its growth." 

Individuals in whom the Gospel had enkindled a 
holy fire of love, — men who, with the strong power 
of faith united the spirit of wisdom, appeared like 
ambassadors from heaven, like beings of a nobler, 
god-like race ; and such, indeed they were amongst 
the corrupt and enervated nations which fell be- 
neath the power of the rude barbarians, and amongst 
the conquerors themselves, It was thus shown 
how much the individual can do through the power 
of religicn. "We shall first turn our eyes to the 
Xorth African Churches, in which the period of 
desolation followed close on the period of the high- 
est prosperity. 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH UNDER THE 
VANDALS. 

The wild tribes of the Vandals — which, although 
outwardly professing Christianity, yet, instructed 
and guided by ignorant and fanatical priests, seem 
to have had no idea of its essence — overran North 
Africa, under their cruel and despotic king, Geise- 
rich. A fanatical hatred to the confessors of an- 
other form of doctrine (the Vandals being the ad- 
herents of Arianism) was united with an insatiable 
avarice, for which it served as an apology. The 



14 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

depravity of the nominal Christians in the rich cities 
of jSTorthern Africa was certainly very great, as is 
manifest from the frequent complaints of Augus- 
tine ; nevertheless, there were scattered communi- 
ties of genuine Christians. Persecutions would, of 
course, have a contrary effect on these contrary 
elements of the churches ; they acted, indeed, as a 
process of sifting for them. To many the question 
was presented, " Wilt thou deny thy faith, in order 
to obtain the undisturbed enjoyment of earthly 
things, or wilt thou sacrifice all, and suffer, in order 
to remain true to thy faith ?" And this demand 
made Christianity a matter of personal concern to 
many, to whom, without such a necessity for deci- 
sion, it might not have become so. Shining ex- 
amples of a faith, prepared joyfully to sacrifice all, 
and peacefully to suffer all, beam on us from amidst 
these persecutions. Men of Roman descent had, 
with Christian loyalty, served the prince of this 
wild people, whom God had given to be their 
king : at length, however, he demanded from them, 
as a proof of obedience, that they would profess 
the same faith with himself, on which condition he 
promised them great earthly advantages. But 
here, where there convictions and their consciences 
were concerned, obedience had its limit. For their 
faith they readily yielded up earthly possessions, 
honours, and freedom ; often even, amidst many 
tortures, life itself. 

To one of these confessors, named Arcadius, 
who had at first been sentenced to exile, the bishop 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 15 

of Constantina in Numidia, addressed a striking let- 
ter of consolation, in which, amongst other things, 
he exhorted hhn thus : " Look to Him to whom 
thou hast remained faithful, depend on him, cling 
fast to him, let him not go ; look not behind to thy 
wife, thy wealth, or thy family. Lift up thy heart ; 
the fallen prince of the angels fights against thee, 
but with thee are the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost. Fear not, he helps thee, that he 
may crown thee victor. Christ was smitten on the 
face, spit upon, crowned with thorns. The Holy 
One was placed side by side with infamous thieves, 
was pierced with the spear, and died — the Christ 
of God — and all this on account of our guilt. 
How much more shouldest thou stand firm for 
thy soul, that no man rob thee of thy crown of 
victory ! Fear not, for the whole Church prays 
for thee that thou mayest stand. With thee suf- 
fers the Lord Christ — with thee suffers the Church." 
Martinian and Maxima, after severe tortures be- 
cause they would not deny their faith, were given 
as bond- slaves to the prince of the wild tribes 
which peopled the deserts of Northern Africa. 
They sought by preaching, and by then life, to 
convert these heathen tribes ; and in a district into 
which before no tidings of the Gospel had spread, 
through their agency many were gained over. 
Thereupon they sent messengers through pathless 
tracts to a city under the Roman dominion, in order 
to procure teachers and pastors for their new con- 
verts. These having arrived, many were baptized, 



LQ MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

and a church was built. But that these outcasts 
should effect such great things in their misery and 
bondage, for the propagation of a doctrine which 
the Vandals regarded as heretical, excited afresh 
the rage of the fierce Geiserich. His vengeance 
could reach them even in their exile, as the Moors 
were, in a measure, dependent on the Vandal king. 
He commanded that they should be bound in a 
forest to wild horses, and so dragged to death. 
Whilst the Moors mourned, the two martyrs with 
calm countenances bid each other farewell in these 
words : " Pray for me ; God has granted our de- 
sire ; thus is the kingdom of heaven reached \" 
And praying and singing they went to meet their 
death. 

Thus did God glorify himself amongst this hea- 
then people, by the power of faith of these suffer- 
ers; and even those who were not by their ex- 
ample themselves led to embrace their faith, may 
yet have been brought by it to recognise him who 
imparted such strength to those who confessed 
him, as a mighty God. 

When in a later age the hereditary prince of the 
Moors in the neighbourhood of Tripoli, was at war 
with the Vandal king Trasamund, he sent some of 
his people disguised into the districts through which 
the Vandal army marched ; and whilst the Vandals 
in their passage had desecrated in every way the 
churches which did not belong to their fellow-be- 
lievers, these Moors were ordered to pay all honour 
to them, as well as to the clergy, whom the Van- 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 17 

dais had ill-treated. " For," said the Moorish 
prince, " I do not indeed know who the God of the 
Christians is ; but if he is as mighty as they say, he 
will certainly take vengeance on those who dis- 
honour Him, and aid those who do Him honour." 
When Geiserich, in 439, plundered Carthage, 
the great metropolis of northern Africa, many were 
precipitated from the summit of earthly prosperity 
into wretchedness. "Whole families, who, although 
they had lost their all, might be thankful to have 
preserved even their life and liberty, wandered 
about hopelessly in different countries. Others, 
men and women of the first families, were carried 
away captive, and sold as slaves in various districts. 
Nevertheless their earthly need became to many 
the means of spiritual health, and an occasion for 
the exercise of Christian virtues. Many an one, 
who, in his prosperity had never troubled himself 
about religious matters, was, by the pressure of 
adverse circumstances, directed to that which he 
lacked. Thus was a senator, who wandered about 
with his whole family, and who had previously re- 
mained an alien to Christianity, now first through 
his sufferings brought to the faith. The bishop 
Theodoret wrote, in recommending them to the sup- 
port of Christian love : "I have been astonished at 
the disposition of this man, for he praises the Ruler 
of his destiny, as if he were still in the midst of 
earthly prosperity ; and he does not think of the 
heavy storm which has come upon him, because 
his misfortunes have brought him the treasure of 



18 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

piety; whilst, during his enjoyment of earthly 
wealth, he would not listen to the preaching of the 
Gospel. Now, however, robbed of these riches, he 
has abandoned heathenism, and has become pos- 
sessed of the riches of faith, and therefore he sets 
his misfortunes at defiance/' 

A maiden of a distinguished family was sold as 
a slave ; she was bought by Syrian merchants, and 
thus came into the service of a family of the city 
of Kyros, on the Euphrates, where Theodoret was 
bishop. With her was sold one of her former 
female slaves, and they now shared the same lot. 
But although the outward bond between herself 
and her mistress was dissolved, the slave would not 
dissolve the inward bond of love. After the ser- 
vice of their now common masters, she would wait 
on her former mistress. This became by degrees 
known throughout the city, and made a great im- 
pression. Some pious soldiers made a collection 
in order to ransom the unfortunate maiden. The 
bishop Theodoret, who was absent at the time, on 
his return charged the deacons of the Church, to 
provide for the maintenance of the ransomed cap- 
tive. Afterwards, when it became known that her 
father was still living, and was filling an official 
situation in the west, Theodoret endeavoured to 
effect her restoration to him. 

Amongst such maidens of rank who had been 
sold into captivity, was one of the name of Julia. 
She had for her master a heathen merchant of 
Palestine, called Eusebius. She fulfilled her duties 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 19 

towards him with Christian fidelity, so as to win his 
esteem both for her person and her religion. Her 
hour of rest, when her work was finished, she con- 
secrated to devotion— to the reading of the Scrij)- 
tures, and to prayer. Eusebius took her with him 
on a commercial journey into France. On the way 
he landed at Capocorso, a country of Corsica. It 
so happened that a heathen festival was then being 
celebrated there. Eusebius took part in it, and 
offered sacrifices. But the pious Julia remained in 
the ship, mourning that the heathen should give 
themselves up without restraint to their passions. 
The chief of the heathen people, who heard how 
she alone withdrew herself from the heathen festi- 
vities, wished to buy her from her master, in order 
to compel her to participate in the idolatrous wor- 
ship. But her master would not part with her at 
any price. When, however, he had sunk into a 
deep sleep, in consequence of the intoxication to 
which he had abandoned himself at the idol feast, 
the heathens forcibly took Julia out of the ship. 
The chief promised her freedom if she would sacri- 
fice. She answered : " The service of Christ, wham 
I daily serve with a pure heart, is my freedom!' 
She was ill-treated, spit upon, smitten on the face ; 
but said : M My Lord Jesus suffered Himself to be 
smitten on the face and spit upon for me, and why 
should not I suffer myself to be smitten and spit 
upon for His sake ?" When they scourged her, 
she said : " I confess Him who was scourged for 
me." . And so she bore all things patiently, in. faith, 



20 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

and in love to her Redeemer, even to the martyr's 
death. 

Twenty years later, Rome, the ancient metro- 
polis of the world, experienced a similar fate with 
the metropolis of northern Africa. Only by the 
influence which the representations of Leo, bishop 
of Rome, exercised on the minds of the rude Van- 
dals, could Rome be saved from total destruction 
and ruin. Notwithstanding this, so transient was 
the impression made by this circumstance on the 
light-minded Romans, that when a thanksgiving 
feast was ordered on account of it, Leo found the 
church empty, whilst the theatre and circus were 
full. This drew from him an admonitory sermon, 
in which he said : " Let that saying of our Lord's 
touch your hearts, where He says, that of the ten 
lepers whom He had cleansed through the power 
of His compassion, only one returned to give thanks ; 
while the thankless nine, on the contrary, whose 
souls had retained their ungodly dispositions, al- 
though their bodies were healed, neglected this 
pious duty. Lest this rebuke to the thankless 
should apply to you likewise, return you to the 
Lord, acknowledge the miracle which God has 
wrought for us ; and ascribe not ye, like the god- 
less, our deliverance to the operations of the stars, 
but render thanks to the inexpressible compassion 
of the Almighty God, who has willed to soften the 
hearts of the furious barbarians. " 

One consequence of the capture of Rome by the 
king of the Vandal army was, that a crowd of cap- 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 21 

tives were carried off to Africa. There Deogratias, 
bishop of Carthage, caused all the golden and silver 
vessels to be melted down, and employed the pro- 
fits in purchasing the freedom of the captives, and 
reuniting the severed members of families. As no 
other place could be found large enough to contain 
the great multitude, he gave up two churches for 
their reception, and provided them with straw and 
beds. He provided also daily sustenance for each 
according to his rank. Many having fallen sick, 
in consequence of the unaccustomed voyage, and 
hard usage during their captivity, he went amongst 
them at stated times with a physician. Food was 
carried after him, which he divided among the sick, 
according to the prescriptions of the physician. At 
night he visited them at their bed-sides, in order to 
satisfy himself about the state of then health. The 
infirmities of age could not hinder this noble man 
in his pious activity. The greater the blessing 
which must have arisen from such a bishop to an 
oppressed Church, so much the greater must have 
been the sorrow of his flock when, after three years' 
enjoyment of his fatherly guidance, he at length 
died. 

Four-and-twenty years the Church of Carthage 
remained orphaned ; the Yandals refusing to install 
a new bishop. It was not until the reign of king 
Hunnerich, who did not at first display so perse- 
cuting a spirit, that the eastern emperor, Zeno, 
obtained permission for the Church to elect a new 
bishop. But the Vandal king made one condition, 



22 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

very perplexing and hard for his Roman subjects, 
although by no means unreasonable, considering his 
relations to the Eastern empire : " The Arian con- 
gregations must likewise have free toleration for 
their religion in the East. Also, the Arian bishops 
in the East must be permitted to preach in what- 
ever language they please ;"* which plainly indicates 
that already, in the East, certain languages only 
began to be regarded as sacred, and that the Ger- 
man language, used in Ulfilas' translation of the 
Bible, was deemed too rude to be employed in the 
Church. Not so had Chrysostom thought, who) 
by permitting a Gothic presbyter to preach in the 
Gothic tongue at Constantinople, designed to show 
that Christianity is destined and fitted to be the 
civilizing element for all barbarous nations. If 
these conditions were not acceded to, all the or- 
thodox bishops and clergy of northern Africa 
(i. e. y all who were not Arian) were to be banished 
amongst the Moors. 

As the clergy of Carthage could easily see that 
a treaty with such conditions might serve as an 
excuse for man}^ persecutions of the oppressed 
party in Africa, they declared that " on such con- 
ditions they would accept no bishops, but would 
trust to Christ, who hitherto had guided the 
Church, to guide it still." But the Church was 
very desirous of having a bishop, and urged that 
one should be elected. The choice fell upon Eu- 
genius, a man well fitted by his zeal and faith for 

Quibus voluerint linguis populo tract-are. 



THE X0RTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 23 

this difficult and dangerous emergency. His con- 
secration was a great festival, especially for the 
young, who had never before seen a bishop in the 
Church. We find in him a man qualified to guide 
the Church in those difficult times, and enabled, 
by the power of faith and love, to effect great 
things with small means. Poor as his plundered 
Church had been left by the Vandals, he neverthe- 
less contrived to distribute liberal alms among the 
multitude of the needy. What was daily imparted 
to him by pious men, he on the same day distri- 
buted ; and God did not suffer him for one day to 
lack means for the exercise of his love. Such love 
was sure to stir up many hearts to give. But the 
greater the reverence inspired by his life, even 
among those who differed from his creed, — the 
more he was thereby enabled to propagate his 
faith amongst the Vandals, — the more were the 
jealousy of the Arian clergy, and the hatred of the 
tyrannical prince, excited against him. It was de- 
manded of him that he should send away all who 
visited his church in the costume of the Vandals. 
By this means, not only would the bishop be de- 
prived of all influence over those Vandals whose 
conversion to the orthodox doctrine was dreaded, 
but at the same time all those who, although of 
Roman descent, had accepted an office in the state, 
and were therefore compelled to adopt the Vandal 
costume, would be obliged to abandon the old 
church. Eugenius replied with Christian manli- 
ness : " The house of God is open to all, and no 



24 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

man can exclude from it any who wish to en- 
ter." 

The oppressors determined, however, to carry 
out their purpose ; they placed guards at the 
church doors, who were ordered to seize and ill- 
treat every man and woman in the Yandal costume 
who sought to enter. 

After many harsh and cruel measures had been 
adopted, four thousand nine hundred and seventy- 
six of the clergy and laity, who had distinguished 
themselves by their zeal, were sentenced to banish- 
ment into an African desert. Amongst these were 
many sick ; and old men whom age had robbed 
of sight. When they arrived at Lina, Yeneria, 
and Cares, frontier towns of Numidia, where the 
Moors were to fetch them, two Yandal officers of 
rank, in the service of the state, came to them, and 
endeavoured to persuade them to comply with the 
will of the king, who would reward them with 
great honours : but their answer was, " We are 
Christians; we are orthodox Christians." There- 
upon they were thrown into a narrow prison, where 
they stood so close together that they could not 
move, and from which they were not allowed a 
moment's absence ; so that the confinement in 
this pestilential cell became the most terrible tor- 
ture. Nevertheless, their faith gave them stead- 
fastness and joy in the midst of such great suffer- 
ings. And when, on Sunday, in the miserable 
condition into which this painful imprisonment had 
thrown them, without being allowed any refresh- 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 25 

rnent, they were driven forth by their pitiless 
Moorish escort, in spite of all kind of threats, they 
sang the 149th Psalm. Throughout the way, 
multitudes of then brethren in the faith came to 
meet them with burning tapers, and testified their 
grief, and sympathy, and love. " Whom," they 
said, " do you leave behind with us, unfortunate 
ones, now that you go to win the martyr's crown ? 
Who will baptize these our children (whom they 
carried in their arms) ? Who will administer to 
us the Holy Supper ? Who will accompany us, 
with prayer and singing, to our last place of rest ? 
that we might go with you, that the sons might 
not be severed from the fathers !" But the rough 
Moors were touched by none of these things, and 
scarcely allowed the captives time to receive the 
condolence of those who came to meet them. 
They drove on the weary old men, and the weak, 
with then spears and with sharp stones. Those 
who were unable to walk were, without mercy, 
dragged along the roughest and most rocky paths, 
with their feet bound together. Many necessarily 
sank beneath this inhuman treatment. The rest 
were reserved for still greater wretchedness in the 
burning sandwastes, full of poisonous insects, where 
they had no nourishment but barley. 

Meanwhile, the arrival of an ambassador from 
the Eastern empire procured, at least apparently, 
milder measures. The king commanded a dispu- 
tation to be held between the bishops of both 
parties, which was to commence at Carthage, on 



26 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

the first of February, 484. A favourable issue to 
a theological disputation can only be expected 
when the contending parties first agree on what is 
common in their faith ; and when, from this com- 
mon basis, they have acknowledged one another as 
Christian brethren, converse with one another in 
the spirit of love, humility, and self-denial on the 
points about which they differ, ready to be guided 
in all things by the Spirit of the Lord ; then it 
may be expected that the Lord will actually mani- 
fest himself to those who are thus really gathered 
together in his name. Since, however, the greater 
number of disputations and negotiations of this 
kind were not carried on in this manner and spirit, 
but — if not in the spirit of profane passion — at least 
in the spirit of self-willed eagerness, their ordinary 
effect was merely to pro'duce greater hostilities, 
and bitterer divisions. In this case, with such 
passions roused on both sides, and with the natural 
mistrust of the oppressed towards the dominant 
party, no good result could possibly be expected 
from a religious conference. And by the dominant 
party the result was not unforeseen. It was evi- 
dent from the whole tone of the royal edict, that 
the conference was intended to give a colour of 
justice to the total suppression of the other party. 
Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, to whom the 
mandate of the king was first addressed, immedi- 
ately perceived the danger which threatened his 
fellow-believers. If they accepted the challenge, 
it was easy to foresee that the dominant party 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 27 

would not allow them a quiet discussion of their 
doctrine, but would seek to bear it down by num- 
bers and authority : if they declined it, the accusa- 
tion would instantly be made that they themselves 
had pronounced their own condemnation, since 
they dared not trust themselves to defend their 
cause. Eugenius chose this way of escape : he 
declared to the king that they were by no means 
afraid to give a reason of their faith ; but that 
since this affair concerned not Africa alone, but the 
whole of Christendom, they must desire that their 
brethren from beyond the sea, especially from the 
Roman Church, might be present at this inquiry, 
— a request which it could not be difficult for the 
king, whose power was universally recognised, to 
comply with. The king returned to the bishop 
this scornful reply : " Make me ruler of the whole 
world, and I will gladly fulfil your request." 
Eugenius answered : " Xo man can demand what 
is impossible. I have only said this, — if the king 
desires to know our faith, which is the only true 
one, he can write to his friends. I will also write 
to my brethren in office to come hither and declare 
to you the faith which they hold in common with 
us." The Vandal officer replied to this, " Dost 
thou make thyself equal with our king ?" 

Since the Divine power which flows from Christ 
has been introduced into the lives of men, it is not 
always easy in the impressions produced by the re- 
flection of his image — that is, by the power of faith, 
of love, of prayer — to distinguish between the 



28 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

natural and the supernatural. And the Spirit of 
the Lord has his peculiar modes of operation in dif- 
ferent times, as determined by the necessities of 
suffering humanity. Thus it happened that a blind 
man at Carthage, called Felix, had repeatedly had 
a dream before the feast of the Epiphany, directing 
him to go to the bishop at the time when he was 
engaged in preparing the catechumens for baptism, 
and telling him that when he touched his eyes they 
should be cured. When the sick man came to the 
bishop, he said, as became a Christian, " Depart 
from me, my brother, I am not worthy to do this ; 
I am the chief sinner of you all, and therefore is it 
that I survive these mournful times." Thereupon 
Eugenius went, accompanied by his clergy, to the 
place of baptism. As he rose from prayer there, 
he said to Felix, who had followed him, " I have 
already told thee, my brother, that I am a sinful 
man; but may the Lord, who has honoured thee 
with this especial grace, do to thee according to 
thy faith, and open thine eyes !" His prayer was 
heard. His adversaries accused him of having 
wrought this cure by magic. 

The issue of the religious conference at Carthage 
was, as might have been expected, that the op- 
pressed party was accused of having evaded a quiet 
investigation, and that king Hunnerich, who re- 
garded them as convicted heretics, issued an edict 
in which he withdrew from them all toleration of 
their religion, and sentenced them to similar pun- 
ishments with those to which the Arians in the 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 29 

Roman empire were liable. The bishops were 
banished, partly to the island of Corsica, recently 
subjected to the Vandals, and partly to the African 
deserts. Eugenius was among the latter number. 

These cruel persecutions gave occasion for many 
beautiful examples of Christian fidelity and con- 
stancy. Thus, amongst others, seven monks from 
the city of Capso, within the province of Byzarene, 
were banished to Carthage. Then* persecutors 
sought at first to seduce them to apostasy from 
their faith by promises. When they declared that 
for no price would they be untrue to their faith, 
they were loaded with heavy chains, and thrown 
into a dark cell. But the people bribed the jailors ; 
and day and night the prison was full of visitors, 
whom the captives, by their conversations, inspired 
with new courage to endure the worst. As they 
were led through the streets to the scaffold, they 
went to meet their death, singing, " Glory to God 
in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to- 
wards men." And to the people they cried, " Fear 
no threats, and no terror of present suffering, but 
let us rather die for Christ's sake, as he has died 
for us." The Arians tried particularly to shake the 
faith of a boy who was of the number ; but Jie an- 
swered, " No man shall separate me from my father 
(the abbot Liberatus) and my brothers, who have 
brought me up in the convent ; and with them will 
I suffer, as I trust also with them to enter into the 
glory that shall follow." 

To an eminent man of Carthage, who had for- 



30 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

merly been much esteemed by him, the king made 
the most brilliant promises in order to tempt him 
to apostasy ; but he replied, " I am assured that 
Christ is my Lord and my God. If even this pre- 
sent life were all, and we had not, as we most cer- 
tainly have, an eternal life to hope for ; yet would 
I not, in order to enjoy a brief honour, be unthank- 
ful to my Creator, who has intrusted me with his 
faith." 

A lady, who, after much ill-treatment, had been 
banished into a remote desert, replied, when it was 
proposed to grant her a milder exile, " Abandoned 
of all earthly consolation, I still find one abundant 
spring of consolation and joy." 

Bishop Eugenius was, indeed, after some years, 
recalled from exile by the Yandal king Guntemund ; 
but, in the year 496, he was once more suddenly 
severed from his people by king Thrasimund. As 
he knew not what was to become of him, he took 
leave of his Church in a touching letter. " In 
order," he wrote, "not to leave the Church of God 
in an uncertain state during my absence, or like a 
faithless shepherd silently to desert the sheep of 
Christ, I have deemed it necessary, as a compensa- 
tion far my personal presence, to address this let- 
ter to you, by which I pray, exhort, conjure you 
with tears, to hold fast the true faith. My brothers, 
sons, and daughters, in the Lord, be not troubled 
at my absence ; for if ye remain faithful to the true 
doctrine, I will not forget you in the far country, 
nor suffer even... death- itself to separate me from 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. SI 

you. Know then, that which may outwardly sepa- \ 
rate me from you, will weave for me the crown of 
victory. If I go into banishment, I have the ex- 
ample of St. John the Evangelist. If I am led to 
death, Christ is my life, and death my gain. If I 
return, God grants your desire. If I return not, I 
shall see you hereafter. Farewell ; pray without 
ceasing. Remember what is written in Matthew 
x, 28, * Fear not them which kill the body.' " Eu- 
genius was banished to Albigeois, in France, where, 
in quiet and seclusion, edifying the people of that 
district by his life, he passed his last years. 

Amongst the men who distinguished themselves 
by their beneficial activity during these hard times 
for the INforth African Church, was Fulgentius. 
He filled the office of receiver of the taxes (pro- 
curator) in the African Vandal dominions, and was 
on the high road to preferment. He sought, in- 
deed, to soften the strictness which his office de- 
manded of him by the spirit of love, but notwith- 
standing this, his gentle and affectionate heart could 
find no rest in the administration of such an office. 
This contradiction between his nature and his cir- 
cumstances, tended the more to develop in him a 
disgust with the world, and a longing for a quiet 
spiritual life. "May I not," he thought, "like 
Matthew, become from a tax-gatherer a disciple of 
the Lord, and a preacher of the Gospel ?" He be- 
came a monk ; and afterwards, at a time when king 
Thrasimund would tolerate no bishop belonging to 
an orthodox Church, he was, against his will, chosen 



32 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

bishop of the orphaned Church of Ruspe, in Byza- 
rene. He defended his faith at once boldly and re- 
spectfully against his Arian sovereign. He speaks 
thus to the king in an apologetic treatise which the 
monarch himself had called for : " If I freely de- 
fend my faith, as far as God enables me, no re- 
proach of obstinacy should be made against me, 
since I am neither forgetful of my own insignifi- 
cance nor of the king's dignity ; and I know well 
that I am to fear God and honour the king, accord- 
ing to Romans xiii, 7 ; 1 Peter ii, 17. He certainly 
pays you true honour, who answers your questions 
as the true faith requires." After praising the 
king, in that he, the monarch of a yet uncivilized 
people, showed so much zeal for the knowledge of 
Scriptural truth, he says, " You know well, that he 
who seeks to know the truth, strives for far higher 
good than he who seeks to extend the limits of a 
temporal kingdom." He was banished twice to 
Sardinia. There he was the spiritual guide of 
many other exiles, who united themselves to him ; 
from hence he imparted counsel, comfort, and con- 
firmation in the faith to his forsaken Christian friends 
in Africa, and to those from other countries who 
sought his advice in spiritual things and in per- 
plexities of the heart. 

We will extract some passages from these let- 
ters. He thus exhorts a Roman senator : " Direct 
thy heart to the Holy Scriptures, and learn thence 
what thou wert, what thou art, and what thou 
shouldst be. If thou comest with a softened and 



THE WORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 33 

lowly heart to the Holy Scriptures, thou wilt as- 
suredly find in them that grace which raises the 
fallen, guides them in the right way. and finally 
brings them to the bliss of the heavenly kingdom." 
To a widow, whom he seeks to console for the loss 
of her husband, he writes thus : " Pray frequently 
in words, but always with holy thoughts and a holy 
life. Thus mayest thou fulfil what the Apostle en- 
joins, (1 Thess. v, 17.) that we should ' Pray with- 
out ceasing ;' for before God every good work is a 
prayer in which the all-sufficient God delights." 
To the same, he writes : " Let your love be ever 
living to the Bridegroom who liveth forever, as it 
was testified after His resurrection by the word of 
the angel, ' Why seek ye the living amongst the 
dead ?' The living One is He, who is the Word of 
the Father, and he is himself the life of them that 
believe." In another letter he says, " Christ came 
on earth to enkindle the fire of divine love, (Luke 
xii, 40,) to destroy every germ of pride, and to im- 
part to the humbled heart the glow of holy contri- 
tion. Thus it happens that for our sins we justly 
blame ourselves, and for our good works with true 
lowliness of heart praise God ; giving thanks to 
him for what his love bestows, and confessing our- 
selves guilty when our weakness has transgressed 
• gainst him. Contrition of heart awakens the de- 
sire to pray. The lowly mind obtains the Divine 
assistance. The contrite heart lays bare its wounds. 
But prayer seeks cure and health. And who is 
capable of these things ? For who can pray aright 



34 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

unless the Physician himself inspires him with the 
commencement of spiritual desire ? Or who can 
persevere in prayer, unless God confirms what he 
began in us, and gives the increase to what he has 
sown ?" Against ascetic pride he writes thus : 
" In vain dost thou contemn earthly goods, if thou 
bearest a sinful haughtiness in thy heart. For not 
alone do they sin who glorify themselves on account 
of their riches, but more deeply do those sin who 
glorify themselves on account of their contempt for 
riches." In his third letter he writes thus : " The 
souls of all those who are justified and living by 
faith, are here sorely weighed down. Indeed, only 
those know true contrition on whom the Divine 
light has been outpoured, which enlightens every 
man who cometh into the world." He warns at 
once against despair, false confidence, and security. 
" Who, by the sin of despair, would hinder the 
hand of the Divine Physician from effecting the 
cure of men ? The Physician himself says, ' The 
whole need not a physician, but they that are sick/ 
If our Physician is truly skilful, he can heal all 
manner of sicknesses. If our God is merciful, he 
can forgive all manner of sins. That is no perfect 
goodness, by which all evil cannot be overcome. 
That is no perfect art of healing to which there is 
a disease incurable. Let none, therefore, in his* 
sickness, distrust the Physician. Let no man perish 
in the disease of sin, by limiting the mercy of God. 
The Apostle says (Rom. v, 6) " that Christ died 
for the ungodly," and (1 Tim. i, 15) "that Christ 



THE NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. 35 

Jesus came into the world to save sinners.' A 
sound conversion is two-fold, — contrition in it being 
not destitute of hope, nor hope of contrition, when 
with our whole hearts we renounce sin, and with 
our whole hearts rely on God for forgiveness." 

From his second banishment, Fulgentius was 
soon recalled by the mild rule of king Hilderich. 
The return of the persecuted confessors was a fes- 
tival for the Carthaginian Church. Multitudes 
poured forth to the harbour to meet them. But 
the greatest love and reverence were shown to Ful- 
gentius. As he returned from Carthage to his 
church, great crowds came to welcome him from all 
directions, with torches and wreaths, pealing forth 
the praises of God. Xevertheless he who had been 
steadfast in his faith in affliction, in this change of 
fortune, when assailed by the subtle and more 
perilous temptations of pride, continued steadfast 
in his humility. The honour which was paid him 
only made him feel the more strongly his inward 
unworthiness. He had no desire to work miracles, 
because the performance of marvellous things, he 
said, " did not give men righteousness, but glory 
amongst men. But he who is famous amongst men 
will not, if unjust, escape eternal punishment ; 
whilst, on the other hand, he who. justified by the 
mercy of God, lives justly in the sight of God, shall, 
however little known to man, have part in the hap- 
piness of the saints." When he was requested to 
pray for the sick or suffering, he prayed with this 
addition : — " Lord, thou knowest what will minister 



36 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, 

to the health of our souls ; since therefore we pray 
to Thee for that which the present need requires, 
may Thy compassion grant us what will not hinder 
our spiritual welfare ! Let our humble prayer, if it 
is fit, be so granted, that before all things Thy will 
be done." When those who had requested his in- 
tercession, rendered him thanks for its success, he 
answered : " It was not done because of my merit, 
but on account of your faith. The Lord has granted 
it not to me, but to you." His biographer and 
disciple says of him in his own spirit : " This admira- 
ble man would not have the fame of a worker of 
miracles, although he daily performed greater mar- 
vels, in that by his holy exhortations he led many 
unbelievers to the faith, many heretics to the know- 
ledge of the truth, many who lived in the most cor- 
rupt way to a life guided by the laws of temper- 
ance ; so that the drunkard learned sobriety, the 
adulterer chastity, the avaricious and the spoiler to 
distribute all to the poor, humility became sweet 
to the proud, peace to the contentious, obedience 
to the rebellious. Such miracles Fulgentius did in- 
deed constantly seek to perform." 



SEVERINUS IN GERMANY. 

As the Lord ever sends his angels when there is 
most need of help, so in the midst of the desolation 
and destruction which ensued on that irruption of 
the barbarians by which the Roman empire was 



SEVERIXUS IN GERMANY. 37 

broken in pieces after the death of Attila, the great 
desolator and exterminator, (A. D. 453,) He sent to 
the aid of the oppressed people of Germany, on 
the banks of the Danube, in then sore need, a man 
endowed with an extraordinary energy of love. 
His whole appearance has in it something enigmati- 
cal. As he was not wont to speak of himself, no- 
thino- certain could be ascertained as to the land of 
his birth. Since, however, many of all ranks, from 
afar and near, who had gathered around him, wished 
to know his fatherland, and yet would not venture 
to ask it, a priest from Italy, who had taken refuge 
with him, at length took courage, and asked him 
the question. Severinus at first answered him hi 
his characteristic way with friendly raillery, " If 
you take me for a runaway slave, try to collect 
the purchase -money, that you may pay for me when 
I am demanded." Then he added seriously, 'What 
avails it a servant of God to declare his home or 
his pedigree, when by concealing them he can the 
better avoid display ? May my left hand know 
nothing of the good work which Christ strengthens 
my right hand to do, that I may become a citizen 
of the heavenly country ! What need is there that 
thou shouldst know my earthly country, if thou 
art assured that I truly long for the heavenly coun- 
try ? But know, that the God who has granted 
thee to become a priest, has commanded me to live 
amongst this sorely oppressed people." After that, 
no one ever ventured to ask him such a question. 
Probably he came originally from the West, and 



38 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

had retired into some Eastern desert, in order to 
consecrate himself to the quiet life of holy contem- 
plation. Here he was reached by the Divine call 
to sacrifice his rest to the suffering nations of the 
West, as again afterwards, when he would gladly 
have once more retired into solitude, a Divine voice 
frequently constrained him not to withdraw his 
presence from the oppressed tribes. 

The district where he settled, the modern Austria 
and Bavaria, was then the theatre of the greatest 
desolation and confusion. No place was secure, 
one wild tribe followed another ; all social order 
was dissolved. The land was devastated, the in- 
habitants carried away as slaves. Universal desti- 
tution and famine ensued on these perpetual wars. 
When Severinus had lived a long time among these 
nations, and accomplished much amongst them, so 
that his fame was spread far and wide and the 
episcopal dignity was offered him, he declined it, 
saying, " it was enough for him, that he had been 
deprived of his beloved solitude and led by Divine 
Providence into these regions to live amongst men 
who left him no rest." 

It must, indeed, have made a great impression 
on the enervated as well as on the savage nations, 
when they saw Severinus voluntarily renounce all 
comforts, and live at so small and mean a cost ; 
when, in mid- winter, when the Danube was so firmly 
frozen that it could bear carriages, they saw him 
go about barefoot amidst the ice and snow. 

Those nations which corrupt civilization had 



SEVERIXUS IN GERMANY. 39 

made effeminate, might learn from him what was 
so needful for them in their present circumstances, 
to be independent of outward things, to elevate 
themselves by the life of the Spirit above their 
present distresses, and by spiritual joy to soften 
and sweeten want and destitution. The men of 
the barbarous tribes, on the other hand, who saw 
before them nothing but effeminate men, whom 
they might crush by the superiority of their bodily 
power ; who acknowledged no dominion but that 
of physical force, — must have been struck with ad- 
miration and respect when they beheld how a man, 
with a body worn out by abstinence, could, never- 
theless, by spiritual power alone — by the power 
of a spirit animated by faith and love — accomplish 
the o-reatest things. 

There was a great contrast between him and the 
worldly-minded clergy, as indeed one of their num- 
ber once acknowledged when he said : " Depart 
from our city, thou holy man, that during thine 
absence we may enjoy a little relaxation from fast- 
ing and watching." The warm-hearted Severinus 
could not restrain his tears, that a man of his holy 
calling should desecrate his position by such frivo- 
lous words. 

Yet it was far from him to look on these renun- 
ciations as anything meritorious, and on their ac- 
count to regard himself as a saint. When men 
praised him for them, he said, " Believe not that 
what you see is any merit of mine, but let it rather 
serve you as a wholesome example. Let human 



40 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

pride be abased. We are chosen to this end that 
we should accomplish some good thing ; as the 
Apostle says, " that the Lord has chosen us before 
the foundation of the world, that we should be 
holy and without blame before Him." Pray for 
me that the gifts of my Saviour may not serve to 
increase my condemnation, but to the furthering 
of my justification (sanctification). Hard and 
strict as he was with himself, he was just as tender- 
hearted in sympathy with the need and suffering 
of others. He felt hunger, his disciple says of him, 
only when he saw others suffer from it ; he felt 
the cold only when he saw others destitute of 
clothing. He gave up all that he had, in order 
to help the poor people of these districts. His 
prayer, his exhortations, the example of his active, 
self-sacrificing love, were able, in a devastated, im- 
poverished, and famine-stricken land, to bring to 
pass the apparently impossible. From many places 
the tenth of the harvest, to the collection of which 
he exhorted the clergy by his letters, was sent him 
to furnish clothing for the needy. Once in mid- 
winter, people came to him over ice and snow, 
through mountainous and pathless regions, laden 
with clothing, which the inhabitants of JSToricum had 
sent him for the poor. Gladly, however, did he 
bestow on the poor more than was demanded by 
the mere necessities of life. Once, when, in conse- 
quence of the advice of Severjnus, many had taken 
refuge from the surrounding villages and towns on 
the Danube, in the then flourishing city of Laura* 



SEVERINUS IN GERMANY. 41 

cum, (now Lorch,) in order to find there a shelter 
from the wandering barbarous hordes, it happened 
that he had just received from some merchants 
a quantity of vegetable oil, a very rare commodity 
in those parts. It was a delightful opportunity for 
him to give joy to his beloved poor, of whom he 
found a great multitude in this place of refuge. 
He gathered them all together in a church, and dis- 
tributed to each of them, to their great delight, a 
due proportion of this oil. 

Whilst he thus provided for the earthly wants 
of men, and imparted to them earthly gifts, he 
never ceased to unite with these spiritual blessings, 
by directing the eyes of all to the fountain of all 
spiritual and bodily good. He opened the assem- 
bly with prayer, and was wont, before he proceeded 
to the distribution of the gifts, to conclude with 
these words, " The name of the Lord be praised." 
He used to remind the poor that they should re- 
ceive these gifts as from the hand of the Lord, and 
give him thanks. His love was broad and univer- 
sal ; and, according to the true nature of Christian 
love, not narrowed by any kind of limitation. He 
saw in the barbarians as in the Romans, in the 
Allans as in the sons of the Church, brethren, need- 
ing his help. When he fell in with princes or chiefs 
of the barbarous tribes who professed the Arian 
do ct line, he did not begin with discussions, about 
dogmas. He did not at once repel them by damna- 
tory judgments on the doctrine which they pro- 
fessed, but first attached them to him by the power 



42 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

of love, and then imparted such exhortations and 
teaching as circumstances might most naturally 
suggest. The Arian prince of the people of Rugen, 
who dreaded the forces of the Goths, asked coun- 
sel of Severinus, whom he revered as an oracle. 
Severinus answered him, " Had we been bound to- 
gether by a common faith, it would have been bet- 
ter that you should have consulted me about the 
things of eternal life. But since you question me 
as to the welfare of that earthly life which we share 
in common, receive my advice. You need not fear 
the power of the Goths, if you do not neglect the 
counsels of humility. Do not delay to seek peace 
even with the most insignificant, and rely not on 
your own strength. Cursed, saith the Scripture, 
is the man who trusteth in men and maketh flesh 
his arm, and in his heart departeth from the Lord." 
(Jer. xvii, 5.) 

It is evident, from many examples, what power 
Severinus exercised over the minds of these men. 
The son of a prince of Riigen, who had regarded 
Severinus as his most faithful and trustworthy coun- 
sellor, wished to fall on the city of Lorch, in which, 
by the counsel of Severinus, a multitude of the in- 
habitants of the surrounding districts had taken 
* refuge from the swords of the barbarians, and to 
disperse those who had settled there into various 
parts of his dominions. They all besought Severi- 
nus, when this terrible rumour reached them, to go 
out to meet the prince and endeavour to soften his 
purpose. Severinus arose at once, and travelled 



SEVERINUS IN GERMANY. 43 

the whole night, so that early in the morning he 
met the prince five miles from the town. When 
the prince expressed his regret that Severinus 
should have so fatigued himself, and asked him the 
cause of such haste, he replied : " Peace be with 
you, good king ; I come as an ambassador of Christ 
to entreat mercy for your subjects. Think of the 
blessings which the Lord has frequently bestowed 
on your father through me His instrument. Dur- 
ing the whole period of his reign, he did nothing 
without consulting me ; and by following my whole- 
some counsels, he learned from his own experience 
how wise it is for the conqueror not to be puffed up 
by his victories." The prince pretended that he 
was only guided by solicitude for the welfare of 
the inhabitants of the city, wishing to save them 
from the sword or the ravages of the Alemanni or 
the Thuringians, by providing them with shelter in 
his cities and fortresses. Severinus replied to this: 
" \Vere these people snatched by your arrows or 
swords from the devastations of the barbarians, or 
were they not rather rescued by the grace of God, 
in order that they might serve you the longer ? 
Despise not, king, my counsel. Confide these 
your subjects to my suretyship, and deliver them 
not up to the ill-treatment of so great an army ; for 
I have confidence in my Lord, that He who has 
caused me to dwell in the midst of these afflicted 
people, will also grant me power to fulfil my pro- 
mise in this matter." And the king suffered him- 
self to be persuaded to retire with his army. 



44 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

People relied so much on the guardian power of 
this single man, that the inhabitants of the Roman 
fortresses besought him to dwell among them ; de- 
claring that they should be better guarded by his 
presence than by their walls. If he were amongst 
them, so they deemed, no harm could befall them. 
Thus he had procured himself a little cell in the 
city of Passau, where he established himself, when 
the citizens called him thence in order to be de- 
fended, by his intercession, from the ravages of the 
Alemanni, whose king, Gewald, had a great respect 
and love for him. This king once wished to come 
to this city, only that he might see Severinus again. 
Severinus went to meet him, anxious to spare the 
city a burdensome guest. By his exhortations, he 
made such an impression on the king, that he was 
seized with a violent trembling ; and afterwards told 
his people that never, in all the perils of war, had 
he trembled so before. When he, thus impressed, 
asked Severinus what request he would make of 
him, Severinus besought him that, for his own sake, 
as well as for that of others, he would restrain his 
army from desolating the Roman empire, and libe- 
rate the captives whom his subjects had carried 
away. A number of these unfortunates were, in 
fact, after this set at liberty. 

His high-hearted trust in God, communicated 
even to the weak courage and strength in their call- 
ing. Whilst he was sojourning in the city of Fa- 
viana, the whole neighbourhood, even up to the 
walls of the town, was disturbed by barbarous 



SEVERINUS IN GERMANY, 45 

hordes of robbers, and men and cattle carried off. 
Many of the citizens complained to Severinus of 
these misfortunes. He asked the Tribune who 
commanded the garrison, if he had no soldiers to 
pursue the robbers. The Tribune replied : " With 
my feeble force I dare not attack the greater force 
of the enemy. But if you advise it, I will venture ; 
for I shall hope to conquer, if not by the strength 
of weapons, by the strength of your prayers." 
Severinus confirmed him in this reliance on God. 
" Make haste," he said ; " be of good cheer in the 
name of God. If God is with you, the number and 
power of men are nothing. If your soldiers are un- 
armed, let them take arms from the foe. Since 
the compassionate God goes before you, the weakest 
shall become strong. God will fight for you. 
Therefore, only be quick ; but remember this before 
all things, bring all the barbarians you take captive 
unhurt to me." Thus the Tribune went forth. 
Half a mile from the city he found the enemy as- 
sembled : he put them to flight, armed his own 
men with the weapons which he took from the foe, 
and 'brought the captives, according to his promise, 
unhurt to Severinus. Severinus refreshed them 
with food and drink, and then liberated them with 
these words : " Go, and warn your people not 
again to venture near this city in search of plunder, 
for they will not escape the vengeance of that God 
who fights for His own." 

Severinus was regarded as a prophet. It may 
be that among the gifts with which God glorified 



46 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

himself in this extraordinary man, was included the 
glance of the seer. It may be, that he, with his 
spirit so filled with Divine life, did seem to the in- 
ferior beings amongst whom he lived, as a prophet : 
when he exercised such power over the heart; 
when, in the enthusiasm of his trust in God, he 
spoke with such confidence of spirit ; when he an- 
nounced to men, whom the horrors of devastation 
could neither awake to their senses, nor arouse to 
repentance, the impending judgment ; or when he 
promised to believers, as if he already saw it, the 
help of God ; when, with a glance sharpened by 
religion, he looked into a future veiled from the 
perceptions of those around him, and imparted to 
them, in consequence, warnings and counsels which 
the event justified. 

He was also regarded as a worker of miracles. 
He himself claimed no such fame. Often did he 
enjoin silence on those who were witnesses of the 
things which he accomplished. When at one time, 
one sick to death was laid on her bed before the 
cell of Severinus, he said, weeping : " Why do you 
demand great things of the insignificant ? I ac- 
knowledge myself totally unworthy : may I but at- 
tain forgiveness of my own sins!" 

But as they persevered, saying, " We believe, if 
thou prayest, she will yet survive," he threw him- 
self, weeping, on his knees. And when his prayer 
had been granted, he said : " Ascribe nothing what- 
ever of all this to my work. This grace has been 
obtained by fervent faith, and this occurs in many 



SEVERINUS IN GERMANY. 47 

places, and amongst many nations, that it may be 
seen, that there is one God, who doeth wonders in 
heaven and earth — who awakens the lost to salva- 
tion, and recalls the dead to life." We may per- 
ceive, as Severinns also perceived, that such facts 
might be fitted for the peculiar circumstances 
of those times, as means of education for these 
nations. 

A monk, named Bonosus, who suffered from a 
disease in the eyes, sought to be healed by the 
prayer of Severinus. But Severinus advised him 
rather to pray to God, that his inward eye might 
be enlightened ; and following the repeated lessons 
of this revered man, the monk learned at length to 
seek rather for spiritual than bodily sight, and to 
forget his sufferings in intercourse with God. 

How remarkably Severinus was sustained by 
Providence in his labours, two examples may suffice 
to show. The land had been much ravaged by 
locusts. When the prayers of Severinus were en- 
treated, to avert this calamity, he said : " Have ye 
not heard what God commanded the sinful nation 
by his prophets ? ' Turn unto me with your whole 
hearts ; rend your hearts and not your garments ; 
sanctify a fast; call the solemn assembly.' Joel ii. 
Do all this, that by works of repentance ye may 
escape the evils of this time. Let none of you go 
to his field deeming that the locusts can be dispersed 
by human care." His words penetrated men's 
hearts ; the feeling of repentance became predomi- 
nant with every one ; all assembled in the church 



48 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

for prayers, confessed their sins with tears of peni- 
tence, and gave alms. Only tine poor man suffered 
himself to be absorbed by anxiety about his field — 
spending the whole day, whilst the rest were as- 
sembled in the church, in anxiously driving off the 
locusts, and only joining the rest in the church in 
the evening. But the next morning he found his 
field ravaged by the locusts, whilst the other fields 
had been spared. This incident made a great im- 
pression, and Severinus made use of it to exhort 
the people to trust in God, and earnestly to en- 
force on them, that care for the things of the kino-- 
dom of God should be the first of all cares. But 
at the same time he said to those who had escaped : 
" It would be well that he who by the punishment 
he has suffered is a warning to you to be humble, 
should this year receive nourishment from your 
liberality.' , All, therefore, united to provide for 
the poor man during the year. 

When Gisa, the queen of the people of Rugen, 
had sentenced some captive Roman subjects to hard 
labour, Severinus entreated their release. She sent 
him a very angry answer, importing that he might 
shut himself up in his cell and pray, and leave her 
to do what she pleased with her slaves. When 
Severinus heard this, he said : " I have confidence 
in my Lord Jesus Christ, that she will be com- 
pelled by necessity to do that which with her per- 
verted mind she will not do willingly." It hap- 
pened soon after, that the queen met the punish- 
ment which was a natural result of her harshness 



SEVERINUS IN GERMANY. 49 

and cruelty. She had thrown some goldsmiths, 
who were to make certain royal ornaments, into a 
narrow prison, to compel them to work beyond 
their strength. The little son of the queen ran one 
day in his childish play in amongst the prisoners. 
They seized the boy, and threatened, that if any 
one dared to approach them without promising 
them freedom with an oath, they would first mur- 
der the child, and then themselves. Then the terri- 
fied queen acknowledged the judgment of God, and 
came to her senses ; she released the prisoners, and 
instantly sent messengers to Severinus to beseech 
his foro-iveness, sending back to him the Roman 
captives. 

When Severinus felt the approach of death, he 
invited the king of the people of Rugen, with his 
cruel wife, once more to visit him. He exhorted 
him, with fearless freedom, so to behave to his sub- 
jects, as always to remember the account he would 
have to render to the Lord. Then, pointing with 
his hand to the heart of the king, he asked of Gisa, 
" Which do you love best, — that soul, or gold and 
silver?" And when she replied that her husband 
was worth more to her than all the treasures of the 
world, he said, " Be careful then not to oppress the 
innocent, lest you yourself thereby prepare the 
downfall of your power — for you have often stood 
hi the way of the king's clemency. I, a lowly man, 
on the point of departing to God, conjure you to 
renounce your evil deeds, and adorn your life with 

good works."' 

4 



50 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

In his last hours, he gathered his monks around 
him, and gave them touching exhortations to lead a 
life devoted to God. Then he embraced each of 
them, and received cheerfully the Holy Supper, 
begging them not to weep, but to sing psalms. 
When they could not articulate for sorrow, he be- 
gan himself to sing, " Praise the Lord, ye His 
saints ; let everything that hath breath praise the 
Lord ;" and these were his last words. After shed- 
ding blessings around him during thirty years, in 
the midst of desolation, he died on the 1st of Janu- 
arv, 482. 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 

In ancient Gaul also many pious bishops were 
especially distinguished, amidst the overturning of 
the nations, by their unwearied zeal and Christian 
love. 



GERMANUS OF AUXERRE (ANTISTODORUM) . 

Such was Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, who held 
this office in 418, from the narratives of whose life 
and labours we will here give some extracts. It 
happened, about ten years after his entering on his 
office, that he was summoned by Lupus, bishop of 
Troyes, into Britain, in order to oppose the spread 
of the Pelagian doctrine, as a system which taught 
men to rely rather on their own strength than on 
the o-race of the Redeemer, and bv the illusions of 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 51 

self-righteousness alienated them from the essence 
of true inward holiness. They preached not only 
in the churches, but in the streets, and in the fields ; 
whithersoever they went, these zealous men gather- 
ed crowds around them, to whom they proclaimed 
the grace of God. The Britons, who could obtain 
no assistance from the falling Roman empire, were 
then driven to great distress by a war with the 
wild Saxons and Picts. Both bishops were called 
into the British camp, and their presence infused 
into the desponding Britons as much courage and 
confidence as if an army had come to their help. 
As it was a season of fasting, the bishops preached 
daily amid the perils of war, and many were in- 
duced by their sermons to be baptized. At Easter 
the church was splendidly decorated and garlanded 
with green boughs for the festival of their baptism. 
The Britons enjoyed their Easter festivities in quiet. 
The Picts had, indeed, formed a project to take 
advantage of their negligence, in order to surprise 
them unarmed ; but their design was discovered, 
and Germanus showed the Britons a valley enclosed 
by mountains, where they could wait the coming 
of the foe. He himself went thither with them, 
and told them, when he should cry Hallelujah, all 
to join him with one accord. This was done, and 
the loud accordant cry of the vast multitude re- 
sounding amongst the hills, made so powerful an 
impression on the Picts, that they fled precipitately. 
. At another time, when he was just returned from 
a second journey to Britain, his aid was besought 



52 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

by the inhabitants of the province of Bretagne, to 
avert a great danger which threatened that region ; 
A e tins, then a distinguished and influential general 
of the Western Empire, having called in the king 
of a wild tribe of Alani to chastise them for a re- 
volt. As the biographer of Germ anus relates, he, 
a gray-headed man, yet through the protection of 
Christ stronger than all, went alone to encounter 
the warlike people and the heathen king. He 
passed calmly through the midst of the army to the 
king, and when the monarch would not hearken to 
him, but persisted in riding on, he seized his bridle- 
rein. His daring so astounded the rude warrior, 
that he yielded, promising to spare the province 
until the bishop should have endeavoured to pro- 
cure a pardon for it from the imperial government. 
In order to effect this, Germanus immediately set 
out for Italy. On his way he joined a company of 
poor mechanics, who were returning to their homes 
after having completed a bargain in a foreign coun- 
try. Amongst them was a lame old man, whose 
strength failed him when he had to follow the rest 
in wading through a brawling torrent with his heavy 
burden. Germanus relieved him of his burden, and 
carried first the burden, and then the old man, 
through the stream. 

As he was coming out of the rich city of Milan, 
where he had been preaching a great deal, some 
poor people met him, begging alms. He asked 
his attendant deacon how large their store of money 
was. The deacon replied that he had not more 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 53 

than three gold pieces left. Thereupon the bishop 
desired him to distribute it all among the poor. 
" But then, what shall we live on to-day ?" asked 
the deacon. Germanus replied : " God will feed 
His poor. Only do thou give away what thou 
hast. 7 ' But the deacon thought he would be more 
prudent; so he gave two pieces away, and kept 
back one. When they had travelled a little further, 
two horsemen came after them, to entreat a visit 
in the name of a rich landed proprietor, who, with 
his family, was afflicted with many diseases. The 
place lay off the road, and his attendants therefore 
entreated Germanus not to accept the invitation, 
but he answered : " It is the first thing of all to me 
to do the will of my God." 

When the horsemen heard that he had resolved 
to come, they presented him with the sum of two 
hundred solidi, (a gold coin of the time,) which had 
been given them for Bishop Germanus. Germanus 
gave it to his deacon, and said : " Take this, and 
acknowledge that thou hast robbed the poor of one 
hundred of these pieces ; for if thou hadst given all 
to the poor, He who repayeth a hundredfold would 
have restored to us three hundred pieces to-day." 
His arrival diffused universal joy at the estate; he 
visited master and servant, with equal sympathy, 
on their sick beds ; he went even into the poorest 
huts, and strengthened all by prayer. 

At the imperial court of Ravenna, Germanus 
received universal honour; and he could easily 
have obtained whatever he wished. The empress 



54 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

sent to his dwelling a large silver vessel full of 
costly provisions. Germanus divided the victuals 
amongst his servants, and kept the silver for him- 
self, in order to lay it out to the best advantage for 
the poor. As an acknowledgment, he sent the 
empress a wooden dish with black bread upon it, 
such as he was accustomed to eat. But in the eyes 
of the empress it was a precious remembrance, and 
she afterwards had the dish enchased in gold. 

Once when, during his residence at Ravenna, he 
was conversing with the bishops on religious topics, 
he said to them : " My brethren, I wish you fare- 
well in this world. The Lord appeared to me to- 
night in a dream, and gave me some travelling- 
money. And when I asked the object of the 
journey, He answered me : " Fear not, I do not 
send thee into a strange land, but into thy father- 
land, where thou wilt find everlasting rest." The 
bishops sought to apply the dream to his return to 
his earthly country ; but he would not suffer the 
mistake, saying : "I know well what fatherland the 
Lord hath promised His servant." 

Into this heavenly country he soon after passed.* 



LUPUS OF TROYES. 



Lupus, bishop of Troyes, the contemporary and 

friend of Germanus, saved his city from impending 

destruction, by his powerful influence over the 

* He died July 31, 448. 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IX FRANCE. OO 

barbarous spoiler who spread terror everywhere 
before him — Attila ; king of the Huns, who invaded 
Gaul with his lawless hordes in 451. The wild 
warrior was penetrated with such veneration for 
him, that he attributed a beneficial influence to his 
presence, took him with him on his return, and left 
him with an entreaty for his prayers. A letter 
from Lupus could move a prince of the Alemanni 
to release captives without ransom. He spent his 
revenue in maintaining the poor, and especially in 
ransoming captives. He collected the refugees 
from various places during Attila's devastations, 
and established them as a colony in a secure moun- 
tain district, residing amongst them for a time 
himself. 

Julianus, a contemporary, thus describes a pious 
bishop of those times : — " By a holy life and holy 
preaching, he converts many to God. He does 
nothing in a domineering way, but everything in 
humility. He places himself on a level with his 
inferiors by the efforts of holy love. He seeks, in 
his life and preaching, not his own glory, but 
Christ's. All the honour which is paid him for 
his priestlv life and teaching, he constantly refers 
to God. He consoles the downcast, he feeds the 
poor, he clothes the naked, he ransoms* the captive. 
He shows the erring the way of salvation ; he 
announces to the despairing the hope of pardon. 
He urges on those that are already running ; he 
diffuses light amongst the wandering. Such a man 
is a minister of the Word, he understands the voice 



56 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

of God, and is to others an oracle of the Holy 
Ghost." Such a man was — 



C^ESARIUS OF ARLES. 

He was born in the district of Chalons-sur-Saone, 
A. D. 470. He seems to have been early awa- 
kened, by a pious education, to vital Christianity. 
When he was between seven and eight years old, 
it would often happen that he would give a portion 
of his clothes to the poor whom he met, and. 
would say, when he came home, that he had been 
constrained to do so. When yet a youth, he en- 
tered the celebrated convent on the island of 
Lerins, (Lerina,) in Provence, from which a spirit 
of deep and practical piety was then diffused. 
France had already received many distinguished 
doctors from this monastery. The weak and deli- 
cate body of the young Caesarius was so much ex- 
hausted by the severities and abstinences which he 
there imposed on himself, that the abbot himself 
desired him to repair to the city of Aries for the 
restoration of his health. 

There were at this time in that neighbourhood 
many pious women, who employed their property 
in relieving the distress of those times of desolation, 
and helped the good bishops in their works of 
love. Such was Synagria, who, because she 
assisted the Church in the accomplishment of every 
good design, more than mere wealth could, was 
called " the treasury of the church." When Epi- 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 57 

phanius, bishop of Pavia, a contemporary of Cac- 
sarius, came to France, with a sum given him by 
Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, for the purpose 
of redeeming some thousands of captives who had 
been dragged from desolated Italy, and the money 
proved insufficient for the great multitude, this 
. pious lady added what was lacking from her own 
purse. 

Another such pious lady was Gregoria, who, 
with Firminius, a near relation of hers, had devoted 
herself at Aries to works of love. She received 
the young Csesarius, to take care of him. She in- 
troduced him to the bishop of the city, who, soon 
perceiving what was in him, appointed him to the 
superintendence of a convent on a neighbouring 
island. How far he was, with all his esteem for 
monasticism, from confounding the means with the 
end, or from setting any value on asceticism apart 
from the essence of the true Christian character — 
true inward holiness, is evident from an admonitory 
epistle of his to monks. " What avails it," he says, 
" if our body only dwells in the place of rest, and 
unrest continues to rule in our hearts ; if the ap- 
pearance of rest is diffused over our exterior deport- 
ment, whilst storms rage within ? For we are not 
come into this place in order to permit ourselves to 
be ministered to by the world, in order to enjoy 
plenty and repose. You ought to know, my 
brethren, that it avails us nothing if we distress 
our bodies with fasting; and watching 1 , and do not 
amend our hearts or care for our souls. In vain 



58 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

do we flatter ourselves that we are crucifying the 
flesh, if our outward man is tamed down by aus- 
terities, whilst our inward man is not healed of its 
passions. It is as if one made a column gilt on 
the outside ; or as if a house were built with mag- 
nificence and art, and painted with the finest 
colours, and within were full of snakes and scor- 
pions. What avails it that thou tormentest thy 
body, if thy heart is not amended ?" In another 
exhortation he says : " Let us renounce the sweets 
of this earthly life, and think daily on eternal life ; 
and endeavour, with hearts purified from the bit- 
terness of worldly lusts, to attain a foretaste of that 
bliss. Let us now serve our Lord and God with 
the joyfulness with which he invites us, by his 
aid, to come and partake of his gifts." 

In the year 500, he became bishop of Aries. 
Whilst he entrusted to others the outward affairs 
of his Church, he devoted himself entirely to the 
care of souls, and to providing religious instruction. 
This, certainly, appears to be the most sacred duty 
of a bishop, and C aesarius was quite penetrated 
with the sense of the responsibility of his office. 
He would frequently urge this duty on the foreign 
clergymen who visited him, who did not seem 
sufficiently anxious about the religious instruction 
of their flocks. " Brother,' 7 he said to many, 
" consider, as a w T ise shepherd, the hundred sheep 
committed to thee, that thou mayst restore them 
tAvofold. Hear what the prophet says : ' Woe to 
me that I have been silent !' Hear what the 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IX FRANCE. 59 

Apostle says with fear : ' Woe to me if I preach 
not the Gospel !' Be careful, lest, by taking the 
chair of the teacher, thou shouldst exclude another, 
and suffer it to be said of thee as of others, ' They 
have taken to themselves the keys of knowledge, 
they enter not in themselves, and exclude those 
who would enter ;' who could, perhaps, better 
advance the things of the Lord." 

He frequently invited his young clergy to bring 
him questions about the interpretation of Scripture. 
" I know well," he often said to them, " that you 
do not understand everything ; — why do you not 
ask, that you may learn to understand ? You 
should spur us on by your questions, that we may 
be compelled to search in order to impart to you 
sweet spiritual nourishment." His zeal and earnest- 
ness in the proclamation of the Divine Word, is 
shown by these words of a sermon : — " I ask you, 
my brethren or sisters, which seems to you of the 
most value, the Word of God or the body of Christ 
(the Sacrament — the bread and wine) ? If ye will 
reply truly ye must say, that the Word of God is 
no wise inferior to the body of Christ. Therefore, 
the same care that we take in distributing the body 
of Christ, lest any portion of it should fall from 
our hands to the ground, we should take when the 
Word of God is distributed amongst us, lest, whilst 
we think or speak of other things, any of it should 
fall from our hearts. I would ask if, at the horn- 
when the Word of God begins to be preached, 
precious stones or golden rings were always dis- 



60 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

tributed, would not our daughters stay to receive 
them ? Unquestionably they would be very eager 
to receive the proffered gifts. But, because we 
neither can nor will offer you any bodily ornaments, 
we are not gladly listened to. Yet it is not just 
that we, who impart to you spiritual things, should 
be looked on as superfluous. For he who gladly 
hears the Word of God, may know of a surety that 
he is receiving golden ornaments for his soul from 
the father-land of Paradise. If a mother wished 
to decorate her daughter with her own hands, and 
the child despised those decorations, and ran 
hither and thither so that the mother could not 
adorn her, would she not justly be punished ? 
Regard me, then, as the mother of your souls ; 
think that I would adorn you that ye may appear 
without spot or wrinkle before the judgment-seat 
of the Eternal. We gather pearls from Paradise 
for you, and we desire no other reward from you 
in this world, than that we may see you joyfully 
receiving what we offer you, and, with God's help, 
perfect in good works." And in another sermon 
he says : "It is no trifle with which the Holy 
Spirit threatens the priests of the Lord by the 
prophet. ' If thou dost not warn the wicked from 
his wicked way, his blood will I require at thy hand. 
(Ezek. iii, 18; and Isaiah Iviii, 1). Be of good 
courage ; lift up thy voice ; lift it up like a trumpet, 
and tell my people of their transgressions.' And 
those fearful words for the careless priest : — ' Thou 
shouldst have given my money to the usurers, that 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IX FRANCE. 61 

at my coming I might have received mine own 
with usury.' And afterwards : — ' Cast forth the 
unprofitable servant into outer darkness.' This is 
the sentence which awaits the negligent priest, 
who does not diligently proclaim the Word of 
God." 

In that age, when the old civilization was declin- 
ing amidst the convulsions of the nations, preach- 
ing became all the more important, as a means of 
culture for the people. On the rude men who 
valued sermons the less, the more they needed 
them, it was often necessary to exercise a kind of 
violence to constrain them to listen, — thus at the 
council held at Agde, where Bishop Caesarius pre- 
sided, it was decreed, that at Divine service, on 
Sunday, the people should remain till the benedic- 
tion at the close. Once, when Caesarius saw seve- 
ral people hastening out of the church, after the 
reading of the Gospel, he ran to them, and said : — 
" What are you doing, my children ? Whither are 
you suffering yourselves to be led by evil counsel ? 
For your soul's sake, hearken diligently to the word 
of exhortation. At the day of judgment ye will 
not be able to act thus. I exhort, I conjure you, 
hasten not hence, and be not deaf. I shall not, at 
any rate, have been guilty of silence." 

It is clear, that in such an age as we have de- 
scribed, in order to obtain much and general bless- 
ing, it was especially necessary that the preacher 
should condescend to the position of the unedu- 
cated, and use language which they could under- 



62 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

stand. Julianus Pomerius, formerly a rhetorician 
of Mauritania, the contemporary and teacher of 
Csesarius, calls attention to this, when he says : — 
" The preacher must not seek to display the elo- 
quence of the schools, lest it should seem that his 
chief object is to make a show of his learning. He 
should rejoice, not in the acclamations of the Chris- 
tian people, but in their tears ; he should expect 
not their applause, but their sighs from a contrite 
heart. The endeavour of the minister should be to 
improve his hearers by his sound doctrine, not to 
gain their empty applause. The tears which his 
hearers should shed let him shed first, and thus en- 
kindle them by the penitence of his own heart. 
As simple and clear, well arranged and dignified, 
should be the charge of the bishop, that he may 
be understood even by the ignorant, and make a 
favourable impression on the hearts of all. It is, in 
short, one thing to be a rhetorician, and another to 
be a preacher. The one seeks with all the force 
of his eloquence the fame of a skilfully- elaborated 
speech ; the other seeks in sober and every-day lan- 
guage to promote the glory of Christ." 

By sucli maxims as these was Caesarius guided, 
as he says in one of his sermons ; " If I were to in- 
terpret the Holy Scriptures to you after the man- 
ner of the fathers, the spiritual food would only be 
adapted for a few educated men ; the multitude of 
the uneducated would be compelled to hunger ; 
therefore, I humbly entreat you, that it may please 
every one to hearken patiently to my simple words, 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 63 

that so the whole Church of the Lord may de- 
rive spiritual nourishment from them. Since the 
uneducated cannot raise themselves to the level of 
the educated, the educated must be content to 
abase themselves to the level of the rest. For what 
is spoken to the simple can be easily comprehended 
by the educated ; but what is preached for these, 
the simple cannot understand." His biographer 
says of him : " God had given him such a gift of 
speaking concerning Divine things, that he was able 
frequently to apply whatever was passing before 
his eyes to the edification of his hearers.' 7 One 
example, already quoted, shows this method and 
faculty of his. 

We will here adduce another instance, from a 
Visitation Sermon in the country, in which he com- 
bats the excuse of ignorance in religious matters : 
" Tell me who has shown thee how thou shouldst 
dress thy vineyards, and at what time thou shouldst 
plant the new vines ? Who has taught thee that ? 
Thou hast seen it or heard it, or thou hast inquired 
of the best vine-dressers, how thou shouldst till 
thy vineyard. Why, then, art thou not as careful 
about thy soul as about thy vineyard ? Give heed, 
my brethren, I beseech you, — there are two kinds 
of fields : the field of God, and the field of men ! 
Thy field is thy farm — God's field is thy soul. Is 
it just that thou shouldst till thine own field and 
let God's lie fallow ? Does God deserve this of us, 
that we should neglect our souls, which are to him 
so dear ? Bv our husbandry, we shall onlv live a 



64 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

few days in this world ; surely, then, we should ex- 
pend more pains on our souls. God has intrusted 
our souls to us, as his husbandry, that we should 
cultivate them with all diligence. Let us, there- 
fore, work with all our might, by God's help, that 
when God shall require an account of his field — 
that is, our own souls — he may find the field well 
tilled and cultivated, the harvest ready, and no 
weeds amongst the corn. It is nothing great, no- 
thing hard, that God requires of us. Eternal jus- 
tice speaks to thee in thy soul, saying : As thou 
carest for thy field, care for thy soul ; as thou cut- 
test off the superfluous shoots from thy vine, so re- 
move evil inclinations from thy soul. As he who 
leaves his vine for a year without pruning, may in- 
deed in that year obtain more abundant fruit, but 
afterwards remains without fruit; so he who does 
not prune away evil thoughts and inclinations from 
his soul, may, indeed, seem, by robbery and de- 
ceit, to receive fruit in this one year of earthly life ; 
but, afterwards, he will remain barren throughout 
eternity." 

The sermons which Cassarius preached during 
his visitations of his diocese, both in the cities and 
in the country, express vividly his fatherly love to 
every portion of his large diocese, and his grief that 
the numerous occupations occasioned by the diffi- 
cult circumstances of which we shall hereafter 
speak, prevented him from visiting them more fre- 
quently. Thus, in one of these discourses, he says : 
" If the necessity of the times permitted it, I would 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 00 

visit you not only once, but twice or thrice every 
year, in order thereby to satisfy as much my own 
desire as yours, of seeing one another. But, whilst 
my will desires it, the necessity of the times per- 
mits it not. Yet it injures neither you nor me, that 
we see one another so seldom, since we are ever 
with each other in love. In the pilgrimage of this 
world, we might be in the same city, and not to- 
gether. There is another city, where good Chris- 
tians are never separated from each other!'' And, 
in another sermon : — " I thank God, that he hath led 
me hither to witness your love, although hindered 
by so much business. God knows that if I could 
come to you twice or even thrice in the year, it 
would not satisfy my desire ; for is there any father 
who does not long to see his sons frequently, es- 
pecially good and dutiful sons ?" C a? sarins endea- 
voured also to provide that throughout the country 
the people should not lack preachers. To this end 
he employed his great influence in the guidance of 
the ecclesiastical affairs of his fatherland, in the 
French ecclesiastical councils. We perceive this 
influence from the fact, that at the second council 
of Vaison, A. D. 529, it was decreed, that there 
should always be preaching in the village churches 
— that the country clergymen should early instruct 
the young ecclesiastical lectors (readers) in the 
Scriptures, and train them up to be their succes- 
sors.* 

As the rights of the clergy seem to have been very 
limited in those districts, until they were extended by 
o 



66 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

It was liis earnest endeavour to make inquiry 
into Divine truths the personal concern of every 

the influence of Caesarius, it is probable that in many dis- 
tricts the village churches received no religious instruc- 
tion except at the visitations of the bishop. It was now 
provided, that even when the parish priest (parson) was 
ill, the congregation should not be entirely deprived of 
preaching; a deacon being authorized to read something 
from ancient sermons. Wisely, too, was the clerical idea 
combatted, that to deliver sermons was something too 
high for a deacon, although it was the deacon's office to 
read the Gospels in the church. " If the deacons are 
worthy to read what Christ has said in the Gospel, why 
should they be deemed unworthy to read the comments 
of the fathers." It is narrated in the biography of Cassa- 
rius, that he instructed his presbyters and deacons, in 
order that the Church might lose nothing if he were hin- 
dered by sickness ; saying, " What ? If the words of our 
Lord, of the prophets, or of the Apostles, are read by 
presbyters and deacons, should it not be permitted them 
to read the words of Ambrose, of Augustine, or of my in- 
significant self? The servant is not greater than his 
Lord. Those who have the right to read the Gospels are, 
in my opinion, quite worthy to read in the church the 
sermons of the servants of God, or their interpretations 
of the Holy Scriptures. 

" I have done what I could. Those bishops who ne- 
glect to provide for these things, will have to render an 
account at the day of judgment. But surely no one can 
be so hardened in his mind, that when God calls to him, 
'Be of good courage, cry aloud, spare not/ he should not 
only not cry himself, but also hinder others from crying. 
Let him fear these words of the prophet Isaiah lvi, 10 : 
* They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark,' (Lutheran 
Version, reprove.) For all the souls which err through 
the silence of the priest, he will be responsible." 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IX FRANCE. 67 

Christian, that each should learn to draw from the 
Word of God for himself. He controverted the 
hollow reasons by which men sought to escape 
these requirements, and to excuse their levity and 
worldliness. Thus, he said in a sermon, — " I be- 
seech you, dearest brethren, to repeat, what by 
Divine grace you have gladly received in these ser- 
mons, to your neighbours and friends, to those who 
could not come to church with you, or, what is 
worse, did not wish to come. For, as I should ac- 
cuse myself if I neglected to say it to you, so should 
you fear that you may also have to render an ac- 
count, if you do not so remember what you hear, 
as to be able to communicate it to others. And 
therefore do ye seek, by the aid of Divine grace, to 
fulfil what the Apostle Paul says, (Gal. v, 1 :) 'If 
a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spirit- 
ual restore such an one, in the spirit of meekness ;' 
which is applicable not only to the clergy, hut to the 
laity" And in another sermon: — " Let no man, 
my dearest brethren, seek to excuse himself by say- 
ing I have no time for reading, and therefore I 
cannot learn nor fulfil God's commandments. And 
let none of you say, I cannot read, and therefore it 
will not be reckoned against me, if I fail to observe 
the Divine commandments. This is an empty and 
unmeaning excuse. For, in the first place, if a man 
cannot read the Holy Scriptures himself, he can get 
them read to him. And he who can read, can he 
not find time to read the Holy Scriptures ? Who 
can sleep so much in the long winter nights, as not 



68 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

to be able to find, at least, three hours, either for 
reading the Bible himself, or having it read to him ? 
Consider it well ; I am telling you what you your- 
selves well know. We know many merchants, who, 
because they cannot read and write themselves, 
hire clerks, and by having their accounts kept by 
others, make large profits. And if those who can- 
not read or write, hire clerks in order to make 
earthly gain, why dost thou not much rather pay 
some one to read the Scriptures, that thou mayest 
gain everlasting wealth ? I pray and exhort you, 
my brethren, that those who can, should diligently 
read the Holy Scriptures ; and those who cannot, 
listen attentively when they are read aloud. For 
the light and eternal nourishment of the soul is no- 
thing else than the Holy Scriptures, without which 
the soul can neither see nor live. For, as our body 
perishes if it receives no food, so our soul grows 
faint if it does not feed on the Word of God. And 
let not any say, I am a peasant, always occupied 
with my daily work ; I can neither read the Holy 
Scriptures, nor get them read to me ; for how many 
men and women of the peasantry learn the devil's 
songs by heart, and sing them ! Thus they can re- 
tain and appropriate what the devil teaches, and 
they cannot remember what Christ teaches." Often 
would he say to those who came to him : " Believe 
not that it is enough for you to seek to nourish the 
souls of your friends and relations only with the 
Word which we proclaim to you. I testify to you, 
before God and the holy angels, that you will be 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IX FRANCE, 69 

responsible for the souls of your meanest servants, 
if you do not communicate to them, as well as to 
your friends and relations, what we have preached 
to you. The servant is indeed subjected to you by 
the present relations of earth, but he is not depend- 
ent on you by an eternal bond." 

Throughout the sermons of Caesarius, may be 
traced an evident effort to combat the externalizing 
religion of the age, to direct men's attention to the 
true needs of the inward life, and to eradicate their 
trust in outward works. As a disciple of Augus- 
tine, of whose writings he had manifestly chiefly 
availed himself, he always pointed out love to God 
as the only true source of all goodness. (i What- 
ever good works," he said, "a man may do, they 
are all nothing, unless true love be in him ; love, 
which extends not to friends alone, but to enemies." 
He quotes 1 Cor. xiii, 3 : " And since selfishness is 
the root of all evil, and love the root of all good, I 
ask, what avails it a man to have a thousand 
branches with the loveliest and pleasantest flowers 
or fruit, if the true and living root is not in him ? 
For as, if the root of self-love is eradicated, all its 
branches immediately wither and die away, so, on 
the other hand, to him who has suffered the root 
of love to die in him, no other means remain of at- 
taining eternal life." And, in another sermon: 
" "Wherein shall we follow the example of the Lord ? 
Herein ; that we awaken the dead ? that we walk 
on the sea ? Assuredly not. But in this, that we 
become meek and lowly in heart ; that we love, not 



70 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

only our friends, but our enemies. He that saith 
he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk 
even as he walked. How did Christ walk ? On 
the cross He prayed for his enemies : — ' Father, 
forgive them, for they know not what they do.' 
They are deluded — possessed by the evil spirit ; 
therefore we should pray rather that they may be 
delivered, than that they may be condemned. 
Fasting, watching, prayer, alms, a celibate life, 
faith, — all avail a man nothing without love. True 
love is patient in misfortunes, and moderate in good 
fortune ; is steadfast amidst severe sufferings ; joy- 
ful in well doing ; secure in temptation ; amongst 
true brethren, full of sweetness ; amongst false 
brethren, full of might ; innocent in calumny, sigh- 
ing under its injustice ; panting after truth ; humbly 
hearkening in Peter, boldly rebuking in Paul, (Gal. 
ii ;) manfully confessing in the Christian : divinely 
pardoning in Christ. True love is the soul of the 
whole Scriptures, the fruit of faith, the wealth of 
the poor, the life of the dying. Therefore, cherish 
love carefully ; love the Highest Good with your 
whole heart, and with all the power of your soul ; 
for the Lord is gracious, and sweeter than all 
sweetness. In communion with Him, all bitterness, 
in converse with Him, all delusions, are kept aloof. 
" My brethren, what is there sweeter than love ? 
Let him who knows it not, taste and see. Hear 
what the Apostle says : ' God is love.' What can 
be sweeter than that ? Let him who knows it not, 
hear what the Psalmist says, (Psalm xxxiv, 9 :) 






LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 1l 

'Taste and see how gracious the Lord is/ Thus 
God is love. He who hath love, God dwells in 
him, and he in God. If thou hast love, thou 
hast God ; and if thou hast God, what canst 
thou lack ? Dost thou indeed believe that he 
is rich whose chest is full of gold, and he not 
rich whose soul is full of God ? But it is not so, 
my brethren ; he alone is rich in whom God has 
graciously vouchsafed to dwell. How can the 
meaning of the Holy Scriptures remain hidden 
from thee, if Love, that is, God himself, inspires 
thee ? What good works wilt thou not be able to 
accomplish, if thou earnest in thy heart the spring 
of all good works ? What adversaries wilt thou 
fear, if thou art honoured to have God the Lord 
within thee. As long as the root in thy soul is not 
changed, thou canst not bring forth good fruit : in 
vain dost thou promise good things with thy mouth ; 
thou canst not accomplish them, as long as thou 
hast not the root of all good in thy heart. One 
root is planted by Christ in the hearts of believers, 
the other by the evil spirit in the hearts of the 
haughty ; and thus the one is planted in heaven, 
the other in hell. But many will say, ' If this 
root is planted in the hearts of believers, and be- 
lievers still seem to be on earth, how then can 
this root be planted in heaven?' Wouldst thou 
know ? Because the hearts of believers are in hea- 
ven, in that they are daily lifted up to heaven ; 
for when the priest says, ' Lift up your hearts,' the 
Church calmly responds, — ' Our hearts are above 



72 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

with the Lord ;'* because the Apostle says, ' Our 
conversation is in heaven.' God does not send us 
wearisome journeys to the east or west to obtain 
our salvation ; He leads us back to ourselves : what 
he has bestowed on us by his grace, that he re- 
quires of us ; for he says this is the Gospel : ' The 
kingdom of God is within you.' Again ; the Lord 
has not said : ' Go to the east, and seek riorhteous- 
ness. Sail to the west to obtain the forgiveness of 
your sins.' But what saith He? * Forgive thine 
enemies, and thou shalt be forgiven. Give, and it 
shall be given unto thee,' God requires nothing 
from thee which lieth outside thee. God leads thee 
to thyself and thine own conscience. In thyself 
has he placed that which he requires of thee. 
Thou hast no need to seek remedies for thy wounds 
afar. Thou mayest, if thou wilt, find the forgive- 
ness of thy sins in the recesses of thy heart." 

Life and preaching, with this man of God, flowed 
from one fountain : that which was the soul of his 
sermons was also the soul of his life. It is related 
of him, that he never prayed only for himself ; that 
when he suffered wrong from his enemies, he used 
simply to say, " May God blot out thy sins ; may 
God take away thy sins ; may God chastise thy 
sins, that thou mayest not retain them ; may God 
amend thy soul here below." He prayed also with 
fervour for his enemies. His inward life expressed 
itself in his outward life. A heavenly repose dwelt 
ever on his countenance ; so that, according to the 
s Eng. Lit. — We lift them up unto the Lord. 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN EN FRANCE. 73 

Scriptures, (Proverbs xvii, 22,)* as his biographer 
observes, a joyful heart shed gladness over his 
whole life. 

Although C a? sarins, in those times of dearth, 
often earnestly urged beneficence and almsgiving. 
yet he also frequently spoke with great emphasis 
against the delusion of those who converted alms- 
giving into an external justification by works, and 
imagined thus to make up for all then sins. Thus., 
in a sermon on the Festival of the Three Kings, 
(Epiphany.) he says : " Those wise men from the 
East brought worthy gifts to the Lord Christ : do 
ye bring Him your souls : bring Him spiritual gifts, 
that is, yourselves : for God loves you more than 
yours. There are many who give alms, and yet 
do not renounce sin. These give their goods to 
God, and themselves to the devil. But God has 
no fellowship with the devil : and, therefore, you 
must banish from you robbery, rioting, pride, hatred, 
and all evil things, that your Creator may possess 
you wholly/'' 

He spoke thus against the delusion of those, who, 
attributing a magical power to the sign of the cross, 
were only confirmed in their sins by it : " I be- 
seech you, dearest brethren," he said. " let us very 
carefully consider why we are Christians, and bear 
the cross of Christ upon our brows. For, we must 
know, that it is not enough to receive the Christian 
name, if we do not bring forth Christ-like works. 
As the Lord himself says in the Gospel : ' Of what 
M A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.' 7 



74 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

profit is it that ye call me Lord, Lord, and do not 
the thing that I say ?' If thou callest thyself a 
soldier of Christ, and constantly signest thyself 
with the cross of Christ, and yet dost not give alms 
according to thy power, and knowest nothing of 
love, well- doing, and chastity, the Christian name 
can avail thee nothing. The sign of Christ — the 
cross of Christ — is a great thing, and it should 
serve, therefore, as the sign of a great and precious 
thing. For what avails it if thou sealest with a 
golden ring, and under that seal preservest nothing 
but foul straw ? What avails it if we bear the 
sign of Christ on our brows and in our mouths, and 
yet hide sins in our hearts. He who thinketh evil, 
speaketh evil, doeth evil, and will not amend him- 
self, increases rather than diminishes his sins, by 
making the sign of the cross. For many, when 
they go forth to commit theft or adultery, will 
cross themselves if they strike their foot against 
anything, and yet will not desist from the evil deed ; 
and these wretched people know not that thus they 
rather invite than repel the evil spirits. But he, 
who, with God's help, repels sin and endeavours 
to think and do what is right— he makes the true 
sign of the cross on his lips, in that he strives to 
accomplish works which deserve to receive the seal 
of Christ." 

So, also, at the consecration of churches, he 
sought to turn the thoughts of the assembly from 
the outward sanctuary to the inward sanctuary in 
the heart ; e. g. — " Whenever we celebrate the fes- 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 75 

tival of the consecration of an altar or a church, 
and at the same time lead a holy life, all that is 
typified in the temples made with hands, is fulfilled 
in the spiritual building within us. For He did not 
lie who said : ' The temple of God is holy, which 
temple ye are ;' and, ' Know ye not that your bodies 
are temples of the Holy Ghost ?' Since, therefore, 
without any merit of your own, by the grace of 
God, we have been made temples of God, let us 
strive as much as we can, that the Lord may find 
nothing in His temples, that is, in us, that may 
offend the eye of the Divine Majesty ; that the 
dwellings of our hearts may be cleansed from sin 
and filled with virtues, shut against the devil and 
open to Christ." In a Christmas sermon, he says : 
" Consider, my brethren, when a man of power or 
rank intends to celebrate his own or his son's birth- 
day, how eager he is many days before to cleanse 
his house from all filthiness ; the house is white- 
washed, the floors swept, and strewn with various 
flowers. All that can minister to the joy of the 
soul and the gratification of the body is carefully 
procured. If, then, thou makest such mighty pre- 
parations for thine own or thy son's birthday, what 
preparations shouldst thou not make for the birth- 
day of thy Lord ! Strive, then, with all thy might, 
that God may not find in thy heart what thou 
wouldst not find hi thy house. If Christ sees thee 
so prepared for the celebration of His birthday, He 
himself will come to thee, and not only visit thy 
soul, but rest and dwell in it forever. How happy 



*76 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

is the soul of him who seeks, with God's help, so 
to order his life, that he may be fit to receive Christ 
into himself as a guest and an inhabitant ; and, on 
the contrary, how wretched is the soul of him, who 
has so defiled himself with sin that Christ cannot 
rest in him, but the devil already begins to reign." 

In prayer, also, he taught the distinction between 
the appearance and the essence. " Above all, must 
we pray to God in silence and quietness ; He hears 
our very sighs, as it is said of Hannah, (1 Sam. 
i, 13 :) ' Only her lips moved, but her voice was 
not heard.' Let us also pray with sighs according 
to this passage, (Psalm xxxviii, 8 :) 'I have roared 
by reason of the disquietness of my heart.' Let us 
pray so that our voice may not sound, but our con- 
science cry to God. And let every one before he 
casts himself down to pray, by God's assistance 
chase from his soul all strange thoughts, that, en- 
kindled by the glow of the Holy Ghost, all sinful 
things may be consumed by the fire of contrition 
and of prayer. For whatever a man sets his heart 
on at the season of prayer, he sets in the place of 
God — he seems to make his God, and to invoke as 
his Lord. What a sore bondage, that our tongue 
should speak to God, whilst the whole bent of our 
soul is toward earth and earthly things !" 

As it was a matter of so much importance to 
Caesarius to make Christianity and Christian devo- 
tion a common concern of every member of the 
Church, he introduced, instead of the hymns sung 
only by the priest, choruses, in which all were to 



I 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 77 

take part ; and in these, besides the Roman lan- 
guage, which prevailed in Gaul, he employed 
Greek, which had been generally introduced in 
southern France by the Oriental colonies. The 
devotional singing of his flock was a great delight 
to Caesarius ; yet even this was to him only a 
means ; and in this also he warned against the over- 
estimate of the outward means. He ever pointed 
to the end, the advancement of holy dispositions. 
"I cannot express to you," he says in a sermon, 
" the joy your devotion has given me. For many 
years it has been the desire of my heart, that our 
gracious Lord might give you this habit of singing. 
But seek, above all, not only by prayer, but also 
by holy thoughts, that the Holy Ghost, who speaks 
by your lips, may also dwell in your hearts. It is, 
indeed, something good and acceptable to God, 
when the tongue sings truly ; but then only is it 
really well, when the life harmonizes with the 
tongue. Above all, consider the spiritual meaning 
of the Psalms. When you sing Psalm cxix, 78, 
' Let the proud be ashamed ;' seek yourself to avoid 
pride. When we sing Psalm lxxiii, 27, ' Lo, they 
that are far from thee shall perish !' let us seek to 
avoid all evil desires. When we sing, ' Blessed is 
he that meditateth day and night on the law of the 
Lord,' let us abhor all useless and improper dis- 
courses as the devil's poison, and frequently read 
the Holy Scriptures ; or, if we cannot read, fre- 
quently and gladly seek to listen to those who do 
read them." 



78 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

He often warns against every tiling which tends 
to make men secure in their sins : as, when many 
gave themselves up to their lusts, in the hope that 
on the sick bed it would be early enough to repent 
and obtain absolution ; or, when others thought to 
insure their salvation by receiving the tonsure and 
the monastic habit on their death-bed ; or, when 
others excused themselves by saying, that they 
could not renounce the world in their youth, and 
imagined they were thereby saved the trouble of a 
true conversion : against such a delusion, Caesarius 
says : — " We need have no hesitation in declaring 
what awaits the man who constantly lives in sin, 
and puts off his repentance to the end of his life, 
sinning on in the hope that a momentary repen- 
tance will obtain him the forgiveness of all his sins ; 
the man, who, after having submitted himself to 
ecclesiastical penance, restores not his unjust gains, 
does not pardon his enemies with his whole heart, 
does not purpose in his heart, if he recovers, to re- 
pent all his life long with great contrition and hu- 
mility ; we need not say, for the Lord himself has 
said in the plainest way in the Gospel, what awaits 
such a man. 'If ye forgive not others their tres- 
passes, neither will your heavenly Father forgive 
you your trespasses.' How shall the sinner, who 
will not forgive, be forgiven ? ' Or how shall it be 
given to those who have not given?' for the Lord 
will surely say to those who have never given alms, 
' Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire : 
I was hungry, and ye fed me not.' I may indeed 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 79 

receive such a man amongst the number of the 
penitents ; but, that God who knoweth the con- 
sciences of all men, and who will judge every man 
according to his deserts, He knows with what faith 
and what intentions such a man has submitted to 
penance.* But if, perchance, whilst we are exhort - 

° The question, whether a death-bed repentance would 
avail a man, was frequently discussed at that time. The 
pious Faustus, bishop of Rhegiuin, (Reiz.) in Provence, 
had, in his warai zeal for practical Christianity, and in 
order to give no ground for security in a sinful life, de- 
nied it all significance. " Since God will not suffer him- 
self to be mocked, that man deludes himself who begins, 
whilst scarcely half alive, to seek life, and then first re- 
solves on the service of God, when all the faculties of soul 
and body fail him for the service. He seems but to mock 
God, who delays as long as possible to seek the physician ; 
and begins to will, when he no longer can." Justly, and 
wisely, especially for that age, did Faustus here deny the 
value of a dead faith, not manifesting itself by works. 
This letter of Faustus disquieted Hundebad, the Burgun- 
dian king, who (as may be seen from the letters of Avitus, 
to whom he addressed many theological questions) was 
thoughtfully disposed, and he asked Avitus, bishop of 
Yienne, his opinion. He declared with reason, that if a 
true conversion, proceeding from repentance and faith, 
took place even in the last moment, it could not be 
in vain. He referred to Matthew xx, 9 ; Luke xxiii, -40. 
Avitus also spoke against the efficacy of a hypocritical 
repentance. He combatted, however, unfairly what Faus- 
tus had said against the value of mere faith ; for Faustus 
had not spoken of that faith which is the foundation of 
all spiritual good, — of living faith, but of the dead, ap- 
parent faith, which is no work of the Spirit, and can bring 
with it no kind of spiritual blessing. On the nothing- 



80 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

ing all to repentance, any should think, 'I am a 
young married man, how can I submit to the ton- 
sure or the monastic habit ?' let him know, this is 
not what we preach, this change rather of costume 
than of life. For true conversion is enough in it- 
self, without a change of garb. Spiritual (clerical) 
clothing can avail nothing, without good works, 
but will itself incur the just judgment of God." 
And, in another place : " But, perhaps, some one 
may think he has committed such grievous sins, that 
he can hope no more for God's mercy. Far be 
such a thought from every sinner's heart. Man, 
whosoever thou art, thou lookest on the multitude 
of thy sins, and dost not think of the omnipotence 
of the heavenly Physician. For, since God will 
have mercy, because he is gracious, and can have 
mercy, because he is almighty, the man who per- 
sisteth in believing that He either cannot or will 
not, closes against himself the door of Divine com- 
passion ; he either distrusts God's grace or his 
power. Let none then despair of God's compas- 
sion ; only let none delay to seek reconciliation 
with God, lest sin should become habitual to him, 
and he be no longer able, even if he were willing, 
to deliver himself from the snares of the devil. 

ness of such a faith, it was impossible to insist too 
strongly with new converts. Csesarius of Aries, also, 
like Avitus, admitted the possibility of an efficacious re- 
pentance in the hour of death ; only he brought more 
prominently forward the requirements and the difficul- 
ties of it. 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IX FRANCE. 81 

But. perhaps, many an one will say, I hold a sta- 
tion in the world, have engagements : and how 
can I repent ? As if, when we exhort you to re- 
pentance, we meant to say that you must have your 
hair cut off, and not rather renounce your sins — that 
you should rather lay aside your garb than your 
disposition. But let him remember, who seeks bv 
such hypocritical excuses to deceive rather than to 
excuse himself, that neither the royal dignity nor 
the royal garb prevented king David from repent- 
ing.'' 

In combafting the delusion of those who imagined 
that they need only repent of the grosser and more 
palpable sins, and in seeking to show that every 
Christian, even those who were considered holy, 
had perpetual need of repentance, he numbers as 
among the minor sins, neglecting to visit the sick 
and imprisoned at the due time, neglecting to re- 
concile enemies, unnecessarily irritating neighbour, 
or wife, or son. or servant. If, amongst men who 
were inclined to place religion in a dead faith and 
ceremonial observances, he insisted on the necessity 
of good works as the fruits of faith, and set the re- 
quirements of the Holy Ghost before their eyes in 
all their strictness, he was, nevertheless, no preacher 
of the law, which killeth, and can never make alive. 
He did not direct men to their own strength ; but 
sought rather to bring them to a true sense of their 
powerlessness, that the}' might learn to draw from 
that Eternal Fountain of all strength to which he 

directed them. He savs, after representing what 
6 



82 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

belongs to a holy life, "All this, my brethren, 
seems to be wearisome, until it becomes habitual ; 
or, to speak more justly, it will be deemed impossi- 
ble as long as men believe they must fulfil it with 
human strength. But when any one is convinced 
that it may be obtained and fulfilled by God's 
power, it no longer appears anything hard and pain- 
ful, but something mild and easy, according to the 
words of the Lord : ' My yoke is easy, and my bur- 
den is light.' ?: He told me to rely on the strength 
of the Redeemer in the contest with the Evil One ; 
as when he says, " How can we fear the devil, if 
we are united to God ? Thou hast such a leader 
in the strife, and yet fearest the devil ? Thou 
figlitest under such a king, and yet doubtest of vic- 
tory ? Daily, indeed, does Satan oppose thee, but 
Christ is present. The devil would crush thee to 
the earth, Christ will raise thee erect ; the one 
would kill, the other will keep thee alive ; but be 
of good cheer, brethren, Christ is better able to 
bear you up, than Satan to beat you down." And 
in another sermon : " Because we were insignificant, 
He has made himself lowly. Because we lay dead, 
the tender Physician has bowed himself to death ; 
for, truly, he who will not stoop, cannot raise the 
prostrate." 

In consequence of the convulsions from which 
France was then suffering, and the frequent march- 
ing and countermarchings of heathen, or recently 
Christianized tribes, many superstitious pagan cus- 
toms were aorain diffused : such as. the observance 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 83 

of omens, the custom of beginning nothing on un- 
lucky days, etc. Against such things as these 
Caesarius would often speak. " Let none of you 
care/' he said, " on what day he departs from his 
house, nor on what day he returns, for the Lord 
has made every day ; as the Scripture says : and 
' it was the first, second, third, fourth, and also the 
fifth, and the sixth day, and the Sabbath ;' and 
then follow these words :• ' God saw everything 
that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.' " 
He also warned against the misunderstanding of 
such Scriptural passages as the people, for want of 
an acquaintance with the Scriptural language, and 
a right interpretation, might pervert to the support 
of their superstitious observances. For example : 
on 2 Kings iv, 29 : "Be careful, my brethren, that 
none of you indulge a foolish thought about this ; 
that none of you imagine that Elisha wished to ob- 
serve an omen, and, therefore, desired his servant 
not to greet any who greeted him on the road. 
We frequently read of this in the Holy Scriptures ; 
but it merely implies haste, and no justification of 
a foolish observance. It is as if he had said — ' Go 
so quickly that thou mayest not be hindered on 
thy way by any conversation with any one.' "* 

° Among the superstitious customs which. Caesarins, 
perhaps vainly, sought to repress, was the abuse then be- 
coming prevalent in France, of seeking oracles about 
earthly things in that book which is the guide to eternal 
life — i. e. the Lot of the Holy Scriptures. Even in earlier 
times, it had often happened that pious men would, in an 
important crisis of their inward life, take an appropriate 



84 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

For a long time there had been two parties in 
France, which contended on the doctrines of grace 
and free-will. The one (the so-called Pelagians) 
sought to find a via media between the Divine and 

expression of the Scriptures as a word directly addressed 
to them from heaven : we find examples of this in the 
lives of St. Athanasius and Augustin. But it was some- 
what different from this to seek for decisions about un- 
certain earthly events in the Scriptures, and to employ 
them in the service of a prying, worldly, and supersti- 
tious spirit. We find the first trace of this abuse in Au- 
gustin, who would have expressed himself yet more 
strongly, if the use of heathen auguries — a result of mere 
external conversions — had not then been so prevalent in 
the Roman empire, especially in Northern Africa. " Al- 
though," says St. Augustin, " it is to be wished that those 
who seek lots in the Gospel (qui de paginis evangelicis 
sortes legunt,) should rather do this than run hither and 
thither to inquire of the gods ; yet this custom also dis- 
pleases me, of seeking to apply the word of God which 
speaks of another life, to the vanities and events of this 
life." But now this abuse was practised even by the 
clergy. So that in mere temporal perplexities, the priest 
would lay a Bible on the altar or on the grave of a saint, 
and with fasting and prayer invoke the saint that he 
would reveal the future by some text ; and then, in the 
first passage which came to hand on opening the Bible, 
seek the decision, (sortes sanctorum.) Against this was 
directed the decree passed at the above-mentioned coun- 
cil of Agde, A. D. 508, that " inasmuch as many clergy- 
men and laymen practised magic under the cloak of re- 
ligion, or in some manner promised to throw light on the 
future by searching in the Scriptures, all who either ad- 
vised or taught such things, should be excommunicated." 
This was a repetition of the decree already enacted at the 
council of Viennes, A. D. 4G5. 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 85 

the human, in the work of conversion ; they wished 
to indicate God as the Fountain of all good, and 
the redemption as the source of true sanctification, 
without thereby destroying the free self-determin- 
ation of man, and so making God the origin of sin 
and sorrow ; they wished to guard from all limita- 
tions the free love of God to the whole human race. 
So far these men held pure Christianity ; but they 
erred in this, that they attempted too sharply to 
define the boundary between the Divine and the 
human in conversion ; that they ascribed too much 
to the will of the creature, which can never stand 
in any other relation to the Source of all good, but 
that of receiving or accepting. A genuine Chris- 
tian spirit of seeking a mean between two opposite 
errors, induced many pious men in the south of 
France to join this party ; as Faustus, bishop of 
Riez, in Provence. They wished to combat a 
spiritual sloth, which sustained itself in the idea 
that God accomplishes all in man, without any co- 
operation on his part. To this party was opposed 
another, (the so-called predestinarians), who re- 
garded the whole development of Divine life in man 
as an unconditional work of Divine grace, with 
which the will of man had nothing to do ; so that 
God was thus represented as blindly and arbitrarily 
awakening some to salvation, and casting others 
away into sin and eternal damnation : on which 
point they often expressed themselves with such 
harshness as to rouse every feeling of humanity. 
It is evident how one extreme called forth and 



86 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

strengthened the other. Caesarius stepped be- 
tween these two parties. He, with his pious soul 
thoroughly penetrated with the sense of the nothing- 
ness of human merits and human power, with the 
sense of complete dependence on God, and the idea 
of complete devotion to God, was especially anx- 
ious to bring forward the doctrine, that man can do 
nothing of himself ; that even the first stirrings of 
desire for justification and holiness come to man 
from God ; that he has only to yield himself up to 
the Redeemer to be sanctified by Him. His object 
was to cast down every meritorious claim of human 
pride. His whole mind was in this too much bent 
to one point, and he was too much impregnated 
with the doctrines of Augustin, to be able clearly 
to perceive and express that point, on which all 
that is practically important in this question hangs ; 
through which alone the way can be found between 
the two opposite reefs with which faith, which is 
not sight, must satisfy itself; namely, that it de- 
pends on the free self-determination of man, either 
to yield himself up to the attraction and training 
power of grace, or to resist and exclude it. But a 
man, so glowing with love and tenderness, and so 
full of Christian moderation, could never fall into 
the harshness of this cold predestinarianism. He 
rather protested against everything that could 
wound the moral feeling, and be at variance with 
the holiness and love of God. He never expressed 
in precise terms the doctrine of an unconditional 
predetermination of God ; he merely clung firmly 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 87 

to the doctrine of all-efficacious grace, without in- 
dulging in further speculations. This spirit was 
manifested in the scheme of doctrine laid down by 
Caesarius, as fixed by the council of Orange, (Arau- 
siuni,) A. D. 529. There, amongst other things, it 
is said : " Even in its original state, human nature 
needed its Maker's help in order to retain its inno- 
cence." Which may with good reason be assert- 
ed ; since God alone can be the fountain of good 
for any created being — the wish in any creature to 
be something in and for itself, is the source of all 
evil. Then it is added, " Since, then, human 
nature cannot preserve salvation once received, 
without the grace of God, how can it, without the 
grace of God, win back the lost? Let no man 
boast of what he has, as if he had not received it ; 
and let no man believe that he has received it 
merely because the letter of the law has been re- 
vealed to him from without. (That is, let no man 
believe that the grace of God consists in the mere 
manifestation of the law, since the law, in and by 
itself — unless the soul, filled with Divine life, and 
animated by the Spirit of love, is in harmony with 
it — can onlv brino- the consciousness of sinfulness, 
can never impart good, can never sanctify). For 
the apostle says (Gal. ii, 21) : 'If righteousness 
come by the law, then is Christ dead in vain.' 
And (Eph. iv, 8) : 'He hath ascended up on high, 
and hath led captivity captive, and hath received 
gifts for 111611;' (German, 'given gifts to men.') 
(Christ, after destroying the power of the evil 



88 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

spirit, and liberating men from it, has triumphantly 
exalted Himself to a participation of the Divine 
power in the heavens ; and He, the victorious Re- 
deemer, armed with Divine might, glorified above 
all that opposes itself to the kingdom of God, dis- 
tributes Divine powers of life, the gifts of the Holy- 
Spirit, amongst the men He has redeemed.) From 
Him every one has what he has. But he who de- 
nies that he has received it from Christ, either, in 
fact, has nothing, or from him shall be taken away 
that which he seemeth to have. In proportion as 
pride and self-will, however subtle, self-reliance, or 
the assertion of personal merit, gain the mastery in 
a man, the good in him is crushed in the germ and 
adulterated. Heathen heroism is called forth by 
worldly desires ; as fame, or love of earthly free- 
dom : Christian heroism is produced by love to 
God, ' which is shed abroad in our hearts,' not by 
our own free will, but by the Holy Ghost which is 
given us. As the apostle said to those who had 
fallen from grace, in that they had sought to be 
justified by the law, 'If righteousness come by 
the law, then Christ is dead in vain:' it may be 
justly said to those who confound nature with 
grace, ' If righteousness come by nature, then 
Christ is dead in vain. For the law was already 
there, and it justified not : and nature was already 
there, and it justified not. Therefore Christ is not 
dead in vain, but that the law might be fulfilled by 
Him who said, ' I am not come to destroy the law, 
but to fulfil it ;' that the nature lost in Adam might 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 89 

be restored in Him who said He came to seek and 
to save the lost." 

"Man has nothing of himself but sin and lies. 
What man has of truth and righteousness, he has 
from that Fountain for which we thirst here in this 
wilderness ; from which w T e are now and then re- 
freshed with some drops, lest we should faint on 
the way. The branches are so joined to the vine, 
that they give nothing to it, but receive the sap of 
life from it. The vine, on the other hand, affords 
the sap to the branches, but receives nothing from 
them. It is, therefore, for the advantage of the 
disciples, not of Christ, that Christ should dwell in 
them and they in Him. For if the branches are 
cut off, another branch can easily shoot forth from 
the living root. But the branches thus cut off can- 
not live without the root." But he also expressed 
horror against those who taught that God predes- 
tined men to evil. A beautiful testimony of a genu- 
ine Christian spirit, and clear Christian knowledge 
in the midst of uncivilized nations. 

The faith of Caesarius was proved by many severe 
trials in these stormy times. One of his secretaries 
accused him falsely and craftily to Alaric, second 
king of the Visigoths, of endeavouring, out of at- 
tachment to his Burgundian fatherland, to bring 
Aries under the dominion of Burgundy. In the 
year 505, he was torn away from his church and 
banished to Bordeaux. Here, also, he inspired 
great reverence. The people attributed the ex- 
tinction of a great fire to his prayers. Instead of 



90 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

exciting insurrection, as lie had been falsely ac- 
cused of doing, he exerted himself to repress the 
fermentation of mind which arose from discontent 
with the Arian princes ; and impressed on all the 
Christian duty of obedience to the authorities — of 
rendering to Caesar the things that were Caesar's, 
and to God the things that were God's. He ex- 
horted them, according to the command of the 
Apostle Paul, to obey kings and magistrates, if they 
commanded nothing contrary to the Divine law; 
and in the prince, to see the prince, not the Arian. 
His conduct was the best answer to the accusations 
against him. Alaric himself acknowledged his in- 
nocence, and called him back. His slanderer would 
have been stoned, had not Caesarius himself pro- 
cured his pardon. After the death of Alaric II., 
in 507, in the unsuccessful war with the Franks, 
the district of Aries was occupied by an Ostrogothic 
army, which hastened to the aid of the Visigoths, 
and the city of Aries, being in the possession of the 
Goths, had to sustain a siege from the united forces 
of the Franks and Burgundians. It happened, 
during the siege, that a young priest, a relation of 
Caesarius, in order to escape from confinement, was 
imprudent enough to let himself down from the 
wall by a rope. This excited a suspicion amongst 
the Goths against Caesarius, that he wished to be- 
tray the city to the enemy. He was ill-treated and 
thrown into prison, until the untruth of the accu- 
sation against him was brought to light. 

When the Goths had gained the victory, they 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 91 

brought back a number of captives into the city. 
Csesarius received them into his church and house, 
and provided them with clothes and food, until he 
was able to obtain their freedom, by paying the 
ransom. In order to bring this about, he not only 
— after emptying the church-treasury — sold all the 
gold and silver vessels of his church, but caused 
all the gold and silver which could be found on 
any part of the pillars and walls to be removed, 
that he might turn it all into money. He held this 
to be the duty of a bishop ; and he used to say of 
those who would not act in a similar way, or found 
fault with his doing so : " When I see amongst 
our priests men who, from a strange love for super- 
fluities, will not exchange the dead silver and gold 
for the servants of Christ, I would ask them, if they 
had met with such a misfortune, if they would not 
wish to be ransomed by these dead gifts ; or if they 
would deem it sacrilege, if any one came to their 
help with these consecrated gifts. I can never be- 
lieve that it is contrary to the will of God, to em- 
ploy what is destined for His service for the liber- 
ation of men, when He gave Himself to redeem 
men." 

After this time of affliction, Caesarius said, in a 
sermon : " The riches for which we hope, are not 
to be found in this world ; * for hope that is seen, 
is not hope ' (Rom. viii, 24) : for the hope of the 
world, which is seen, consists really in bitterness. 
The world presents a bitter draught to her wooers. 
0, the wretchedness of mankind ! The world is 



92 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, 

bitter, and yet is beloved. How would it, then, be 
loved if it were sweet? Truth speaks thus to you, 
ye lovers of the world : * "Where is that which you 
loved, which you so prized ? where is that with 
which ye would not part ? where are so many 
countries, so many splendid cities ?' It would make 
a great impression only to hear of such desolation. 
But now our eyes have seen the dreadful misery 
of the siege, we have seen such numbers of the 
dead, that the living were scarcely enough to bury 
them ! Consider this affliction, which has fallen on 
us by the just judgment of God : whole provinces 
dragged into captivity ; mothers of families carried 
away, the mistress of many servants now herself 
the handmaid of the barbarians. On tender and 
delicate women, the barbarians have, without pity 
or humanity, imposed hard bond-service. But we, 
dearest brethren, whom the Lord has spared, not 
because we deserved it, but that we might have yet 
time left us for repentance ; we should consider, not 
without trembling, that this should be a warning to 
us all. Let us, from the wounds of others, extract 
cures for ourselves ; let us always fear what the 
Lord says in the Gospel (Luke xiii, 2) : ' Suppose 
ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the 
Galileans, because they suffered such things ? I say 
unto you, nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all 
likewise perish.' ' : 

Caesarius was again accused to Theodoric, the 
Arian king of the Ostrogoths, and in 513 he was, 
at his command, carried off to the roval residence 



! 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 93 

at Ravenna. But this generous prince was too sus- 
ceptible of impressions from what was excellent and 
noble, not to be at once convinced, by intercourse 
with a man so penetrated with the spirit of the 
Gospel as Caesarius, of the emptiness of these accu- 
sations. " I trembled," he afterwards said, " when 
I saw him. I beheld before me an angelic coun- 
tenance, an apostolic man ; of so noble a man, I can 
believe nothing evil." It grieved him much, that 
Caesarius should have been compelled by bad men 
to make such a long and wearisome journey. At 
mid-day, he sent him a silver dish as a remembrance, 
weighing about sixty pounds ; and, besides this, a 
sum of money (three hundred solidi). Three days 
afterwards, Caesarius had the dish sold, and em- 
ployed the money in ransoming whole bands of 
captives, whom the Goths had carried off. 

The house in which he resided was so filled with 
the poor and the suffering, that room could hardly 
be found amidst the crowd for his visitors. Such 
respect was felt for his person, that all the people 
of rank sent him gold to distribute. He was en- 
abled to send back a multitude of captives in car- 
riages to their families in France ; and also to bring 
back with him a considerable sum of money (eight 
thousand solidi) for the poor and the captives. 

Even whilst this district was in its saddest con- 
dition, impoverished as his church was, Caesarius 
never lacked means to alleviate the misery of the 
people ; his love, and his inexhaustible trust in God, 
overcame all difficulties, and brought him through. 



94 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

There was once a great multitude of captives col- 
lected at Aries, amongst whom were many of high 
rank, for whom he had paid the ransom ; but who, 
nevertheless, could not return in safety to their 
friends. As they were compelled to remain at 
Aries without any means of sustenance, the bishop 
provided daily for their maintenance. One day his 
steward told him there was no resource but that 
the captives must beg that day in the streets for 
themselves ; for if they were nourished that day 
by the Church, he would have no bread on his 
own table to-morrow. When Cassarius heard this, 
he went into his cell, and prayed that the Lord 
would provide for. the poor. He then returned full 
of joyful trust, and said to his secretary. " Go 
into the granary, and empty it, until not one grain 
remains ; then have the bread baked as usual, and 
we will all eat together ; to-morrow, if there is 
nothing to be had, we will all fast together, — so 
that to-day, people of high birth, and the rest of 
the captives, may not have to wander about the 
streets and beg, whilst we sit eating and drinking." 
But he whispered to another of his confidential 
friends : " To-morrow, God will surely provide ; for 
they who give to the poor shall never suffer want." 
On the next day, which they all anxiously awaited, 
early in the morning, three ships appeared, full of 
grain, sent to Cassarius by the Burgundian princes, 
Gundebad and Sigismund, to support his benefi- 
cence. 

He would often send out his servant to see if 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 95 

there were anv poor waiting at his gate, fearing to 
enter and disturb his quiet ; sighing that it should 
be so hard for the poor to gain access to the hearts 
of their brethren ; believing that in those who 
waited without — in the suppliants, and in the deaf 
and dumb — he saw Christ himself asking for help. 
He said : " Truly it is Christ who waits outside, 
who pleads so hard, who is deaf and dumb, — and 
still does He entreat, exhort, conjure all [to give]." 

When once a poor man begged money of him, to 
ransom a captive, and he had nothing to give him, 
he said : " What shall I do for thee, my poor 
friend ? What I have, give I thee." He went 
into his cell, took up his episcopal state-robes, gave 
them to him, and said : " Go, sell that to any 
clergyman, and with the money set thy captive 
free." His affectionate heart could never refuse to 
intercede for any sufferer ; and people had great 
confidence in his prayers, so often were they grant- 
ed ; but he always rejected the fame of a worker 
of miracles. 

When a mother once thanked him with tears for 
his prayers, to which she ascribed the recovery of 
her son, he told her rather to thank Him whose 
omnipotence and grace are always ready to help 
the afflicted who call on Him. 

And often he would say: "He to whom the 
charge of souls is committed, must take good care, 
that people do not rather seek bodily than spiritual 
help from him [the cure of bodily sickness, rather 
than the cure of the mnladies of the soul]. Divine 



96 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

grace has much more frequently bestowed such 
miraculous gifts on the simple than on the learned. 
May the merciful God grant us, to lead an accepta- 
ble life in His sight, with the talent he has lent us, 
with that moderation, which does not seek to go 
beyond its measure ! To work miracles, must not 
be attributed to men unworthy as we are." 

Thus had Caesarius laboured as a bishop forty 
years, and reached his seventy-third year, when he 
was seized with a severe illness. In the midst of 
great pain, he asked if Augustin's day was still far 
off. And when he heard that the day was near, 
he said : "I trust in the Lord, that he will not suf- 
fer the day of my death to be far from his ; you 
know how I have loved him as a teacher of the 
truth, great as the distance is between him and me 
in worth." And he died the day before, August 
27th, 542. 



EPIPHANIUS OF PAVIA, 

About the same time that Caesarius was thus la- 
bouring in France, Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia, 
was labouring in a like spirit in Italy. He also was 
a blessing for his land, convulsed by the distur- 
bances of war, and deluged by one barbarous tribe 
after another. Amidst the strife of hostile tribes, 
he gained equal confidence and equal respect from 
the leaders of the adverse parties, and shed bene- 
fits alike on friend and foe. When the wild hosts 






LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 97 

of Odoacer were destroying and plundering Pavia, 
in 476, Epiphanius alone was able to overcome the 
rage of the barbarians and deliver many of his un- 
fortunate countrymen. By him the restoration and 
re-population of the ruined city was effected. In 
reliance on God, he undertook the re-construction 
of a church which had been reduced to ashes, al- 
though he nad no means of paying the expenses. 
He used to say, that the rich soul (he meant that 
which possessed the true and inward wealth of 
faith) could never lack means ; whilst, on the other 
hand, it was the hardest thing in the world for a 
man who was poor in soul, ever to have enough. 
Although he was in spirit dead to the world, and 
lived in constant reference to eternity, he neverthe- 
less took a lively interest in earthly affairs, from 
love to his brethren. He sacrificed his repose ; he 
appeared at the camps and courts of princes ; un- 
dertook dangerous and wearisome journeys, on 
which he denied himself every convenience, and 
bore all kinds of privations, in order to obtain from 
the princes of the dominant tribes, peace, an allevia- 
tion of public burdens, and liberty for the captives. 
A journey which he undertook to the camp of king 
Theodore, in his fifty-eighth year (A. D. 497), in 
the severest season, under many inconveniences, in 
order to promote some object of this kind, appears 
to have caused his death. He returned to Pavia in 
ill health, and although the joy of meeting his 
Church again, after having obtained for them the 

desired help, made him forget his sickness for a 

7 



98 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

« 

time, it overcame him at last. As those words 
which he often repeated, "Forme to live is Christ 
and to die is gain/' had been the watchword of his 
life ; so, when he felt the near approach of death, 
he said with a calm cheerfulness, (Ps. xxxix, 1 :) "I 
will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever ; with 
my mouth will I make known His faithfulness to all 
generations ;" and, " Lord, into thy hands I com- 
mend my spirit ;" " My heart is joyful in the Lord, 
my horn is exalted in the Lord, because I rejoice 
in thy salvation." 2 Sam. i, 1. And thus, singing 
psalms of thanksgiving, he left this world. 



ELIGIUS, BISHOP OF NOYON. 

The life of this pious bishop is so much the more 
worthy our consideration, on account of his having 
passed many years in the position of an ordinary 
citizen, before he entered on the clerical office ; be- 
cause his life may thus afford us a picture of the 
pious citizens of his time. Eligius was born at 
Chatelat, a mile from Limoges, A. D. 588. His 
family had been Christian for many generations, 
and he received a pious education,* the result of 
o ^he m i nc | f a pj ous mother of those times is express- 
ed in the letters of the mother of Desiderius, a friend of 
Eligius, who lived at the Frankish court at the same 
time with himself, and afterwards became Bishop of 
Cahors. In the letters of Archanefreda, to her young 
son, Desiderius, she says : " My dearest son, — I exhort 
thee always to think of the Lord, always to have God in 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 99 

which extended throughout his life. In his youth, 
his father, Eucherius, apprenticed him to a cele- 
brated goldsmith, who inspected the public mint at 
Limoo-es. Bv the skill which he obtained in this 
trade, by Ins other talents, and by his judicious 
Christian conduct, he soon became known through- 
out the neighbourhood. Religion crave him strength 
and interest in his work ; and as his work constrain- 
ed him to attend to earthly things, he felt all the 
more the necessity of refreshing his spirit with 
spiritual things. He regularly and zealously at- 
tended Divine service ; and what he heard read 
from the Holy Scriptures made a deep impression 
on his mind, and frequently occupied his thoughts. 

thy soul, and neither to do evil deeds, nor consent to 
them. Be loyal to the king, and kind to thy companions ; 
and ever love and fear God. Be carefully on thy guard 
against all evil deeds, by which the Lord may be offended, 
lest by thy bad example thou shouldst draw others into 
sin. May thy neighbours, or thine equals, have no cause 
to blame thee, but may they rather, seeing thy good 
works, glorify the Lord ! Bemember constantly, my son, 
what I have promised God for thee, [the parents were 
then commonly the sponsors,] and walk continually in 
the fear of the Lord." After the loss of both her other 
sons, she wrote to him : " What would thy wretched 
mother do, if thou too shouldst die ? But thou, my be- 
loved son, take heed, now that thou hast lost thy dear 
brothers, that thou lose not thyself. Depart from the 
broad way which leadeth to destruction, and keep thy- 
self in the way of God. I believe grief will put an end 
to my life-; do thou pray, that He may receive my soul, 
for whom love makes me sigh night and day." 



100 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

When, subsequently, he obtained a Bible of his 
own, he used constantly to lay it open before him 
at his work. He afterwards left his native land, 
and repaired to the royal residence of the Frankish 
king, Clotaire the second. Clotaire's treasurer, 
Bobbo, made his acquaintance, and took him into 
his house. It happened that the king wished to 
have a chair adorned with gold and precious stones, 
made after a design of his own. None of his court 
workmen being able to make it as he wished, the 
treasurer invited Eligius to accept the order, and he 
declared himself ready. Much gold was given him 
for this work, and he used it with such economy 
and fidelity, that he was able to make the king two 
chairs, instead of one. He sent one chair to the 
king, and kept the other himself. The king ad- 
mired the skill of the workman, and testified his 
gratitude. But he was still more astonished when 
Eligius brought him the other chair, and said : " In 
order not to be guilty of negligence, I have em- 
ployed the remainder of the gold in this work." 
The king remarked : " He who is so faithful in lit- 
tle things, will be faithful also in greater things ;" 
and Eligius was highly respected after this incident, 
both on account of his skill, and his character. 
So great was the confidence reposed in him, that 
when any work was to be done for the court, gold, 
silver, and precious stones were sent him without 
measure or weight ; because it was well known, 
that he would never use more than was necessary. 
He once begged the king to give him a piece of 






LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 101 

land, which was the property of the state, to build 
an abbey on. The king granted his request ; but 
Eligius afterwards found that he had described the 
land as about a foot less than its real circumference. 
This grieved him sorely, and he went at once to 
the king and told him of it. The kino* said to his 
attendants : " See what a glorious thing Christian 
fidelity is ! — my dukes and finance-ministers seize 
large estates for themselves, and this servant of 
Christ, because of his faithfulness in the Lord, could 
not bring his heart to be silent about a handful of 
earth." The king once desired him, in some affair, 
to take an oath, and, in order to give it greater 
solemnity, to lay his hand, after the custom of the 
times, on a box of relics. But this was a heavy 
requirement from the tender conscience of Eligius. 
He did all in his power to avoid it. The king at 
length ceased to press him, and took a cordial leave 
of him, saying : " He believed him more than if he 
had taken many oaths." Although Eligius lived at 
court, in the midst of the world, his heart was al- 
ways turned away from the world, and set on God 
and Divine things. His going out and coming in, 
the commencement of all his undertakings, were 

° Concerning prayer, Eustasius, abbot of Luckow, in 
this century, said : " The more the Lord is sought, the 
more He is found. Nothing should be so important to us 
as diligent prayer ; for the Lord says to us through the 
Apostle : ' Watch and pray, lest ye enter into tempta- 
tion/ The Apostle also exhorts us to ■ pray without 
ceasing ;' the whole Scripture tells us to call upon God ; 
for he who neglects to call upon God, is cut off from com- 



102 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

accompanied with prayer ;* and lie prayed not for 
earthly riches for the body, but for heavenly gifts 
for the soul. At first, he conformed outwardly to 
the world ; for he knew that the Christian calling 
consists only in renouncing the world in heart. He 
appeared therefore in the most splendid clothing, 

munion with the members of the body of Christ." In a 
biography of this age, mention is made of the imparting 
of that true light, which enlightens every saint who prays 
for himself and for all believers in Christ. When Wand- 
regisel, abbot of Fontanelles, in this century, was yet a 
layman, he came into a village, whose inhabitants were 
very ill-spoken of, and a quarrel arose amongst them 
which seemed likely to end in bloodshed. He had re- 
course to prayer, and succeeded in restoring peace. 
After that his heart began to glow, and he praised God, 
saying : " Surely He is to be loved above all, who is in- 
stantly present whensoever He is called upon, as he 
himself has said by the prophet, (Jer. xxix, 13 :) ' And ye 
shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me 
with your whole heart/ " Similar examples of the opera- 
tions of Christianity and Christian men lie about us at 
this day. Who does not think of the life and labours of 
the Apostolic Swartz in the East Indies ! What an im- 
pression he produced b}" his sermon on the thievish Kal- 
ler ! How they were converted by Christianity into quiet, 
peaceable husbandmen. (See " Modern History of the 
Protestant Missions in the East Indies." — Knapp. Halle, 
1804.) (The influence of Swartz on the Pagan and Mo- 
hammedan princes of the East Indies, even on Hyder Ali; 
compare the third and first volumes of that very learned 
collection with the traits from the life of that noble man, 
in the excellent Magazine for the recent history of Pro- 
testant Missions and Bible Societies, first year, fourth 
part. Basil, 1816.) 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 103 

which courtiers were then accustomed to wear, in 
order to avoid singularity. But when he had 
gained respect enough by his conduct to be able 
to depart from the common custom without giving 
offence, he laid aside all ornaments, and went about 
in a plain dress, in order to be able to give what- 
ever he could save to the poor. When a stranger 
asked for his house, the usual direction was, " Go 
wherever you see a crowd of poor people gathered 
together, there dwells Eligius." Once, when he 
heard that ship-loads of slaves were arrived for sale, 
captives of Roman, Gaulish, British, and Moorish 
descent, especially Saxons, who were driven forth 
in herds, like cattle, he hastened to the spot, and 
immediately redeemed a hundred of them. When 
money failed him, he gave not only his jewels, but 
even necessary articles of clothing, and stinted him- 
self even in his daily food. He went at once with 
them to the king, and obtained letters of manumis- 
sion for them, riving them the choice either of re- 
turning free to their country, in which case he 
would supply them with money for their travelling 
expenses, or of remaining with him, not as bondmen, 
but as free brethren ; or of becoming monks, in 
which case he would secure them good lodging in 
a convent. It sometimes happened that Eligius, 
in this way, gave away all that he had, and then 
lie seated himself at the table with the poor, who 
were his ordinary guests. His servants either ridi- 
culed him, or expressed their compassion ; but he 
said : " ye of little faith, will He who fed Elias 



104 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

and John in the desert, withdraw his blessing from 
us to-day, in the midst of such a company ? I 
trust in my Creator, that although we ourselves 
deserve it not, these poor people shall not leave 
this room unrefreshed by his gifts." And scarcely 
had he spoken these words, when some people 
knocked at the door of the house, bringing him 
bread and other provisions from the king, or some 
rich man or other person of piety, who knew his 
boundless beneficence. It was painful to his gentle 
heart to see the corpses of condemned criminals 
hung in chains ; and he obtained permission from 
the king, to take them down and bury them. He 
went himself to provide for their interment. But 
he first touched them carefully on every side, to see 
if any signs of life yet remained ; and when once he 
actually did see such signs in one of them, he said, 
not dreaming of any miracle, although his admirers 
gave it out as such : " How grievously we might 
have sinned, if the Lord had not prevented, in thus 
burying a living man !" He provided carefully for 
the recovery of the wretched man ; the prosecu- 
tors indeed urged that he should be again delivered 
up to justice, but Eligius obtained his pardon. 

Eligius took great interest in the propagation of 
religious knowledge. On his journeys he preached 
edifying sermons to the people. He founded con- 
vents, which formed a strong contrast by then- 
severe discipline to the degenerate Frankish monas- 
teries, and provided them with Bibles. The uni- 
versal reverence which he inspired by his pious fife, 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 105 

and the confidence which was placed in his Chris- 
tian zeal, occasioned his election to a vacant bishop- 
ric, which needed a laborious and devoted man to 
fill it, (A. D. 841.) It was the extensive diocese of 
Yermondes, Tourney, and Noyon, in which, and 
on the borders of which, dwelt many still heathen 
tribes, to whom no preacher of the Gospel had yet 
been sent, who as yet knew nothing of vital Chris- 
tianity, and rather looked on it as a mere outward 
appearance, a ceremonial service, with which many 
heathen superstitions were mingled. At the peril 
of his life, and amidst many contumelies, which 
were heaped upon him, did he labour amongst the 
wild heathen, and the nominal Christians, who 
would not renounce their heathen superstitions and 
pleasures. Sometimes he gained the victory over 
the rage and hatred of the heathen by his Chris- 
tian love and gentleness, sometimes he was con- 
strained to use vigorous measures against the mighty 
of the land, who would continue to mingle heathen 
lusts and superstitions with their nominal Chris- 
tianity, promoting both amongst the people by the 
power of their example. Once, when the festival 
of the apostle Peter was celebrated with heathen 
rejoicings, in a diocese beyond that of JSToyon, 
Eligius, attended only by three of his clergy, went 
into the midst of the wild tribes, enraged as they 
were against him on account of his preaching. He 
ascended an elevated place in front of the church, 
and spoke severely against these heathen customs ; 
whilst the crowd — consisting of people of German 



106 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

descent, looking on him as a foreigner, on account 
his Romano- Gallic origin, called out to him in a 
threatening way : " Preach, Roman, as much as 
thou wilt, thou wilt not succeed in destroying our 
old customs : no man shall deprive us of our old 
games, which afford us so much amusement."* 

Fragments of the sermons of Eligius have been 
preserved, from which it may be seen how anxious 
he was to combat the delusion, that a mere out- 
ward historical faith, and an outward ceremonial 
were enough homage to render to religion ; and to 
impress on men the necessity of true sanctification. 
" It is not enough," he said, " my beloved friends, 
to have adopted the Christian name, if you do not 
bring forth Christian works ; for to be called a 
Christian only profits him who constantly keeps 
Christ's doctrines in his heart, and manifests them 
in his life ; who commits no theft, bears no false 
witness, lies not, does not commit adultery, hates no 
man, but loves all as himself ; who does not render 
his enemies evil for evil, but rather prays for them ; 
who excites no strife, but rather reconciles those 

° It is related of Samson, bishop of Dot, in Bretagne, 
in the sixth century, that, after having preached success- 
fully on the 1st of January, on a certain island, against 
the heathen festivities common at that time, he gathered 
around him the children who were wandering about in 
consequence of these customs, and whilst he kindly ad- 
vised them in the name of the Lord to refrain from those 
heathen superstitions in future, gave to each of them a 
golden coin, in order, by this token of love, to win more 
favour for his exhortations in their childish minds. 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IX FRANCE. 107 

who strive ; for this commandment vre have from 
the Lord himself — (He quotes Matt, xix, 18, and 
vii, 12, and still greater commandments than these) — 
(v, 44 :) ' Love your enemies, bless them that curse 
you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them 
who despitefully use you, and persecute you.' 
See ! it is a strict commandment : it seems a hard 
thing to men, — but it has a great reward ; hear 
what — ' That ye may be children of your Father 
which is in heaven.' what grace ! In ourselves 
we are never worthy to be servants of God, — and 
by love to our enemies we become children of God. 
Therefore, my brethren, love your friends in God, 
and your enemies for God's sake. For he who 
loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law, as the 
apostle says : whosoever will be a time Christian, 
must keep this commandment ; whosoever keeps 
it not deceives himself. He, therefore, is a good 
Christian who relies on no amulets, or inventions 
of Satan, but sets all his hopes on Christ alone ; 
who entertains strangers as joyfully as if they were 
Christ himself, — because He has said : ' I was a 
stranger, and ye took me in. In that ye have done 
it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto Me.' He is a Christian who believes 
no slander, who himself lives soberly, and teaches 
his sons and neighbours to do the same ; who knows 
the Lord's Prayer and the Creed by heart, and in- 
structs his whole household in them. In such an one 
Christ dwelleth, for He hath said : ' My Father and I 
will come unto him and make our abode with him.' " 



108 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

Eligius also exhorts them to bring up their chil- 
dren, for whom they had stood sureties to God at 
their baptism, in the fear of God, and to visit those 
who were sick and in prison ; he warns them against 
many kinds of heathen superstition : not to hang 
amulets about the neck of man or beast, even if they 
ivere made by a priest — even if they were said to be 
holy things, or to contain passages of the Scriptures ; 
for such things were no medicines of Christ, but 
poisons of the devil.* " Let no woman hang amber 
about her neck, or, in weaving or dyeing, invoke 
Minerva or any other demon ; but let every one de- 
sire, that in every work the grace of Christ may be 
present with her, and rely with her whole heart on 
the power of His name. Let no one cry aloud 
when the moon is eclipsed, for it is eclipsed at cer- 
tain times by God's command ; and let no one fear 
to begin any undertaking at the new moon, for God 
created the moon to divide time, and to soften the 
darkness of the night, not to hinder any business, 
or to make any one mad, as fools believe. Let no 
one believe in destiny, or in any influence of the 

° Chrysostoin, Jerome, and Augustin, also speak against 
this superstitious abuse, of making amulets of fragments 
or passages of the Gospels. We see thus how supersti- 
tion everywhere takes the same direction ; because it does 
not come to man from without, but issues from the 
abundant fountain of his corrupt heart. " No need," 
says the significant old proverb, " to paint the devil on 
the wall ; he comes in without being invited." The 
Mohammedans in Asia and Africa, we know, sell sen- 
tences from the Koran as amulets. 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 109 

stars, as some say ; • as the birth of a man is, so 
will it be with him;' for God wills that all men 
should be saved, and come to a knowledge of the 
truth ; and He guides everything with wisdom, as 
He decreed before the foundation of the world. 
High, indeed, are the heavens, wide is the earth, 
immeasurable is the sea, beautiful are the stars, 
but "yet more inconceivable and glorious must He 
be who made them all ; for if these visible things 
are so incomprehensible, the manifold fruits of the 
earth, the beauty of flowers, the various kinds of 
beasts, — if visible things are of such a nature, that 
we cannot comprehend them, — what idea can we 
form of those heavenly things which we cannot yet 
see ? Or what must the Creator of all these things 
be, at whose bidding all are created, by whose 
will all are ruled ? Fear Him, then, my brethren, 
above all ; pray to Him at all times ; love Him 
above all ; cling to His mercy ; despair not of His 
grace." " Let no one care when he goes out, or 
comes in, what comes to him, what he hears the 
birds cry or sing, what he sees any one carrying ; 
for he who minds such things is still partly a 
heathen, whilst he who despises them may rejoice 
that he can apply to himself the words of the 
Psalm, (Psa. xl, 4 :) ' Blessed is the man who 
maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the 
proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.' The apostle 
also exhorts us to the same thing, (Coloss. iii, 17 ;) 
' And whatsoever ye do, do all in the name of the 
Lord Jesus.' " 



110 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

He especially counsels them to despise dreams, 
because, as the Holy Scriptures say, they are vain ; 
and he appeals to Leviticus xix, 26 : " Have Christ 
in your heart, and His sign on your brow. The 
sign of Christ is a great thing — the cross of Christ ; 
but it only avails those who keep the commandments 
of Christ. Let no man deceive you ; he who doeth 
righteousness is righteous, he who committeth'sin 
is of the devil ; and no sin, whether adultery, theft, 
or lying, is committed without the co-operation of 
the devil. Let no man deceive himself; he who 
hateth one man in this world, loses all that he offers 
to G od in good works ; for the apostle does not 
lie, when he addresses to us those fearful words, 
(1 John iii, 15 :) 'He who hateth his brother is a 
murderer, and walketh in darkness.' By brethren 
we must here understand every man, for in Christ 
we are all brethren. Despise not, therefore, the 
poor, or the bondman ; perhaps he is better before 
God than thou art. Strive that ye may be sepa- 
rated from the devil, and united to God who has 
redeemed you. Let the heathen wonder at your 
conduct ; and even if they ridicule your Christian 
life, let not that disquiet you ; they will have to 
render an account to God, Wherever ye may be, 
be mindful of Christ in your intercourse ; for he 
says : ' Where two or three are gathered together 
in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' ' : 

He uses this as a motive to beneficence, that all 
are redeemed by one ransom, and serve one Master. 
He introduces the Saviour as speaking thus at the 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. Ill 

last judgment to the sinner : "I made thee from a 
clod of clay into a man, with My hand ; I placed 
thee, without any merit of thine, amidst the joys of 
Paradise ; but, despising My commandments, thou 
chosest rather to follow the tempter, — thus hast 
thou justly merited condemnation. Afterwards, I 
had compassion on thee ; I appeared in the flesh, — 
dwelt among sinners. I bore stripes and shame 
for thee : I took thy sufferings on me, that thou 
mightest be healed. I took thy punishment on 
Me, that I might give thee glory." 

" Let us," he says, in another place, "love God 
above all ; for it is, indeed, a crime not to love Him, 
to whom we can repay nothing, even if we love 
Him : for what can we poor sinners render unto 
the Lord for all He has given us ? To Him who, 
without any merit of ours, has done such great 
things for us unworthy creatures ? Who, to de- 
liver us from the dreadful condemnation, came down 
from the throne of His Father's majesty to us, and 
bore all our shame on earth." 

The affectionate disposition of Eligius, and the 
constant bent of his mind towards the things of 
another life, are expressed in this letter of his to his 
old friend Desiderius, bishop of Cahors. " Before 
all, I entreat thee, as often as thou art able to lift 
up thy soul amidst the cares of the world to the 
life of eternal rest, to bind up the remembrance of 
my insignificant person with your prayers. For it 
is certain, that nothing in this world penetrates the 
heart with such a strength of longing, as the thought 



112 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

sympathy for the grief of his beloved. At length 
of eternal life, and the blessed country of the just. 
What the heart is full of, the mouth will overflow 
with. Therefore, my Desiderius, whom I have in 
my heart, remember thine Eligius when thou spread- 
est forth thy prayer before the Lord. And although 
distance separates us one from another, let us, never- 
theless, be constantly together in Christ ; and let us 
strive so to live, that, ere long, we may be reunited 
in soul and body, and dwell together thus united 
forever. I trust our most gracious Lord Jesus 
Christ will grant this to our persevering and be- 
lieving prayers." 

Eligius had, in the exercise of steadfast and un- 
wearied activity, reached his seventieth year, when 
he became calmly conscious of the approach of 
death. One day, as he was walking about with the 
young clergymen who were educated under his eye 
at Noyon, he remarked something out of repair in 
a church which they were passing, and immediately 
sent for workmen to restore it. When his scholars 
said to him, that it would be better to wait for a 
more convenient time, that the work might be more 
durable, he replied : " Let it be done now, my 
children ; if it is not repaired now, I shall never 
see the restoration." Deeply grieved by these 
words, his scholars answered : " Far be that from 
thee ; may the Lord preserve you yet many years, 
for the glory of his Church and the good of the 
poor !" But Eligius exhorted them to resign them- 
selves to the will of the Lord, and said : " Be not 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IX FRANCE. 113 

troubled at this, my children, but rather rejoice, and 
wish me joy ; for long have I desired my release 
from the long sorrow of this life." 

A slight fever was to him a sure sign of the ap- 
proach of death. He had his whole household 
called together, announced to them his approaching 
end, and exhorted them all to live in peace and 
love one with another. His illness lasted five or 
six days, and as he was still able to go about, leaning 
on a staff, he continued active as ever. On the 
last day of his life, — the last day of Xovember, 659, 
— he ao-ain assembled all his household and all his 
young clergy, and spoke to them thus : " If you 
love me, as I love you, listen to my last words. 
Strive continually to keep God's commandments; 
sigh continually for Jesus ; let His lessons be deeply 
graven on your hearts. If ye love me, love the 
name of Christ, as I love Him. Think always of 
the uncertainty of this life ; keep the judgment of 
God continually before your eyes, for I go now the 
way of all flesh. Ye will live henceforth with- 
out me in this world, for it pleaseth the Lord 
now to call me away ; and I, too, long for my dis- 
solution, and for rest, if it please the Lord." He 
then called to him, one by one, the young men 
whom he had educated and trained for the clerical 
life, and told each of them in what abbey he wish- 
ed to be buried. It was long ere their tears or 
complaints would allow him to speak ; for, much as 
he yearned for everlasting life, and rejoiced in the 
nearness of the goal, yet was he deeply moved by 



114 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

he spoke again : " Mourn not so bitterly, and afflict 
me not still more by your tears. If ye were wise, 
ye should rather rejoice than mourn ; for, although 
I shall be far from you in bodily presence, yet I 
shall be present with you in a far better way — in 
spirit ; and even if that w T ere not so, God is ever 
with you : to Him I commend you, to Him I com- 
mit my cares for you. Whenever it was in my 
power to do any good, I have laboured in all things 
for your welfare ; that ye will acknowledge on that 
day when the Lord shall judge the hidden thoughts 
of men. I know, indeed, well, that I, as an unpro- 
fitable servant, have not done what I ought ; yet 
the Lord knows what my will has been." After 
he had again solemnly conjured them to be faithful 
to his instructions, and to look after his religious 
institutions in the convents, — after he had said fare- 
well to those so dear to his heart, he fell on his 
knees, and commended the sheep which had been 
committed to him to the Eternal Shepherd. When 
he was near his last moments, he once more caused 
his disciples to be gathered around his bed, and 
whilst they embraced one another, weeping, he said 
yet again : "I cannot now speak to you any more, 
and ye will see me no more amongst you ; there- 
fore live in peace, and let me now go to my rest." 
It was remarked, that he prayed long in silence, 
looking towards heaven. Then he prayed aloud, 
" ' Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in 
peace, according to Thy word.' remember that 
Thou hast formed me from clay, ' Enter not intq 



LABOURS OF PIOUS MEN IN FRANCE. 115 

judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall 
no man living be justified.' Remember me. Thou 
who only art without sin, Christ the Saviour of the 
world, take me out of the body of this death, and 
save me in Thy heavenly kingdom. Thou hast 
ever been my guardian, into Thy hands I commend 
my spirit. I know that I deserve not to see Thy 
face. But Thou knowest that my hope has always 
been in Thy mere}', and that I have clung firmly 
to Thee in faith, and in the confession of Thy name 
I spend my last breath. Receive me, then, accord- 
ing to Thy great mercy, and let me not be ashamed 
of my expectation. Let Thy gracious hand pro- 
tect me, and lead me into the place of refreshment ; 
be it but the meanest dwelling which Thou hast 
prepared for Thy servants and those that fear 
Thee." And, whilst praying, he departed. 



THE ABBOTS EUROUL AND LOUMOX. 

To the examples already given in the previous 
biographies, of the power which religion exercised 
over the rough and savage mind, we may add the 
following. The abbot Ebrolf (Euroul) had settled 
with his monks in a thick forest, infested by wild 
beasts and robbers. One of the robbers came to 
them, and, struck with reverence at their aspect, 
said to them : " Ye have chosen no fit dwelling 
for you here. The inhabitants of this forest live 
by plunder, and will not tolerate any one amongst 



116 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

them who maintains himself by the work of his 
own hands. Ye cannot remain here long in safety. 
But what would ye do in this wild, barren region ?" 
The abbot Ebrolf answered him: "Know, my 
brother, that the Lord is with us ; and since we 
are under his guardianship, we fear not the threats 
of men ; for he himself has said : ' Fear not them 
that kill the body, and after that have no more 
that they can do.' For know, that the Lord is 
able to feed his servants even in the desert. And 
thou, also, mayst share in these blessings, if thou 
wilt abandon thy wicked pursuits, and promise to 
serve the true and living God ; for our God for- 
gets all the evil that the sinner has done, on the 
day when he turns from all his sins, as the prophet 
says. (Ezekiel xviii, 21.) Therefore, my brother, 
despair not of the goodness of God on account of 
the greatness of thy sins ; but follow the exhorta- 
tion of the Psalm, (Psa. xxxiv :) Depart from evil, 
and do good ; and be sure that the eyes of the 
Lord are upon the just, and His ear is open unto 
their cry. But let these terrible words also re- 
sound in thine ears ; * The face of the Lord is 
against them that do evil, to cut off the remem- 
brance of them from the earth.' ' : 

Thereupon the robber went away ; but the words 
which the excellent abbot had spoken to him in 
such affectionate and penetrating tones, had left a 
deep impression on his soul. The next morning, 
he hastened back to the monks ; he brought the 
abbot from his poverty three of his coarse loaves 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 



117 



and a honeycomb ; and promising, with a softened 
heart, amendment of life, he remained there as a 
monk. And after his example, many other rob- 
bers of this forest were persuaded by the exhorta- 
tions of this pious abbot, either to become monks 
or to commence agriculture, and maintain them- 
selves in an honest way by the work of their 
hands. 

Another Frankish abbot of this age, Lauman, 
(Loumon,) was surprised in his cell by robbers ; 
but the loftiness of his aspect overcame them so 
much, that they fell down at his feet, embraced 
his knees, and cried out, " Pardon us, holy man of 
God." He replied : "Why do ye ask pardon, my 
children ? wherefore are ye come hither ?" They 
then confessed everything to him, and he gently 
replied : " The Lord have mercy on you, my dear- 
est children ; arise and renounce your robberies, 
that you may partake of the mercy of God." 



GREGORY THE GREAT, BISHOP OF ROME. 

It pleased God, to whom all his works are known 
from eternity, to prepare Gregory by a twofold 
process, for the great and difficult work of the 
guidance of the Western Church, then agitated by 
so many storms. Destined to be plunged into the 
midst of an immense multitude of avocations of 
the most varied character, he was trained to bear 
such a burden by administering, until his fortieth 



118 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

year, an important civil office. Then, yielding to 
a long-felt yearning of his heart, he retired into a 
monastery, and there, in still, devout tranquillity, 
was able to hold converse with himself, and to 
strengthen and stablish the Divine life within him. 

From the calm repose of the monastic life, — for 
which he often afterwards sighed, — he was next 
thrown into a whirl of business which left him no 
rest, and was in a great measure alien to the spirit- 
ual life and calling, as he himself complains : " For 
since," he says, "as the world draws near its end,* 
the times are full of disquiet, and evils increase, 
even we, whose life is consecrated to Divine mys- 
teries, are entanp-ed in outward cares," 

Gregory draws vivid pictures of the devastation 
of the world in that age, and avails himself of this 
to press on the hearts of his contemporaries the 
hollowness of earthly things, and to direct their 
eyes to things eternal. Thus, he says in a sermon : 
" Those saints on whose graves we stand, had 
hearts exalted enough to despise the world in its 
bloom. There was then long life amongst men, 
continued prosperity, rest, and peace ; and yet, 
whilst the world was still blooming in itself, its 
charm had already faded from then hearts. But 
now, lo ! the world itself has faded, and yet its 

° The convulsions — which the God who killeth in or- 
der to make alive, Avho can call forth new life from death, 
designed to be heralds of a new creation — appeared to 
those who suffered from them, to betoken the end of all 
things. 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 119 

charm over our hearts decays not. Everywhere 
death, everywhere mourning, everywhere destruc- 
tion ; we are smitten on all sides, on all sides bitter 
waters overflow us ; and yet, with senses blinded 
by earthly passion, we love the very bitterness of 
the world, we pursue the world flying from our 
embrace, we cling to the world sinking from our 
grasp, and, not being able to sustain the sinking 
world, we, cleaving to it as it sinks, sink with it 
into the deep. Once the world enchained us by 
its charms, now it is so full of misery that, of it- 
self, it points us to God. The perishing of those 
earthly things, shows that even when they seemed 
firm they were nothing- Be mindful of these 
things, that, despising earthly glory, ye may 
through our Lord Jesus Christ attain that glory 
which by faith is already yours/' And in another 
sermon he says : "I demand of you, what is there 
that can now rejoice us in this world ? Every- 
where do we see mourning, everywhere do we hear 
sighs. The cities are destroyed, the castles are 
ruined, the fields are laid waste, the whole land is 
desolate. The villages are empty, and scarcely an 
inhabitant is left in the cities ; and even this scanty 
remnant of the human race is daily exposed to 
slaughter. The scourge of heavenly iustice is not 
withdrawn, because even under the scourge no 
amendment takes place. We see some carried 
into captivity, some maimed, and others slain. 
What is there to rejoice the heart in such a life, 
my brethren? If we still love such a world as 



120 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

this, we are in love, not with joys but with wounds. 
We have seen what has become of her who was 
the mistress of the world." He then points out 
how other great cities had experienced a similar 
fate, and concludes with the exhortation : " Let 
us, therefore, at least take courage to despise the 
world now that it has fallen ; may our yearnings 
after the world at least end with the world, and 
let us imitate the saints as far as we are able." He 
makes use of the state of the world to enforce on 
bishops the responsibility of their calling. " You 
see," he says, " by what sword the world is de- 
stroyed ; ye see beneath what blows the world is 
daily perishing. Is not this chiefly on account of 
our sins ? Behold ! the cities are depopulated, the 
castles destroyed, the churches and abbeys are in 
ruins, the land is laid waste ! But ive are guilty of 
the death of this perishing people, — we, who should 
have been their guides to life." 

Italy was devastated by the Lombards, who 
frequently threatened the Roman territory, and 
Gregory, as one of the mightiest vassals of the 
eastern empire, had to take part in its defence. 
We may conceive what a melancholy position it 
was for a man, who would gladly have lived for 
spiritual realities alone, to be placed between the 
Lombards, eager for conquest, the governors of the 
eastern empire, often neglectful of their duty, and 
a court full of dissensions. In addition to all this, 
there was the care of the numerous lands which 
the Roman Church possessed in different eonti- 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 121 

nents and kino-doms, whose revenues were neces- 
sary to the bishop, in order to enable him to pro- 
vide, as his office required, for the maintenance of 
a number of poor, and the ransom of a number of 
prisoners. One example will sufficiently show how 
strongly Gregory felt this to be part of his episcopal 
duty. A few poor old men once came to him 
from Ravenna, and related to him how much had 
everywhere been given to them on their journey. 
But when he asked them "what they had received 
from Marinian, the new bishop of Ravenna, who 
had been a monk with him in his youth, they re- 
plied, that he had refused them any alms, saying, 
as an excuse, that he had nothing to give. Gre- 
gory therefore wrote to a friend, whom he com- 
missioned to admonish bishop Marinian : "I am 
surprised that one who has clothes, who has silver, 
who has a cellar, should have nothing to oive to 
the poor. Tell him, that with his position, he must 
also change his way of life. Let him not think 
that reading and prayer are enough for him now ; 
nor that he should sit solitary in a corner, without 
bringing forth fruit in action. He must help those 
who suffer need, regard the wants of strangers as 
his own, otherwise the title of bishop is for him an 
empty name." 

He himself has given us a sketch of his own 
situation, in these few words of a letter: "I must 
care at once for the bishops and the clergy, the 
monasteries and the churches ; must be vigilant 
against the snares of enemies ; ever on my guard 



122 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

against the treachery and wickedness of those in 
authority : what anxieties and troubles these are, 
you will be able to appreciate better in proportion 
to the purity of the love you bear me." He also 
complains, in a sermon : " While I lived in the 
cloister, I could keep my soul almost perpetually 
disposed to prayer. But now that I have taken 
upon me the burden of the pastoral office, my soul, 
harassed by many distractions, cannot always col- 
lect itself ; since, sometimes I have the affairs of 
the churches, sometimes those of the convents to 
investigate ; often I am forced to acquaint myself 
with the life and actions of individuals, sometimes 
to take upon myself the business of the citizens, 
sometimes to sigh, over the desolating swords of the 
barbarians, and to fear the wolves which lie in am- 
bush for the flocks committed to my charge ; some- 
times to provide for the administration of the Church 
property, so that those who live according to law- 
ful order (i. e., clergy, monks, nuns) may not lack 
means of subsistence ; sometimes patiently to en- 
dure robberies of Church property, sometimes, with- 
out failing in love, to resist them. How can the 
soul, torn by cares so many and so various, return 
to itself in order to collect itself for a discourse, and 
not to neglect the ministry of the Word ?" And, in 
another sermon : " How can I be enabled to pro- 
vide for the daily maintenance of the brethren, to 
insure the defence of the city against foreign swords, 
to guard the citizens against a sudden surprise, and, 
besides all this, to impart the word of exhortation 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 123 

in the most perfect and efficient way to the souls 
of men ? For we need have a free and quiet soul 
to speak of God." 

Yet he knew in whom he had believed. For when 
he says, " What sort of a watchman am I — I, who 
stand not on the height of the mountains, but still 
lie in the valley of weakness ?" he answers him- 
self : " But the Creator and Redeemer of mankind 
is mighty ; and, unworthy as I am, if, from love to 
Him, I spare not myself in the preaching of His 
Word, he is able to bestow on me the fulness of 
life, and the power of utterance." He was able 
also to turn this struggle to profit for his inner life ; 
it became clear to him, through his own experience, 
how easilv a man living in the undisturbed tran- 
quillity of contemplation, might deceive himself 
about his own spiritual state ; that it is only amidst 
temptations and conflicts that we learn rightly to 
discern between the human and the Divine. He 
says himself: "By contemplation man is raised to 
God ; but by the weight of trial he is thrown back 
upon himself. Trial bows down, that contempla- 
tion may not puff up ; and again, contemplation 
elevates, that trial may not overwhelm. By an 
admirable ordinance of God, the soul is poised in a 
certain equilibrium ; so that it may be neither un- 
duly exalted in prosperity, nor unduly depressed in 
adversity." And he observes beautifully on Matt. 
xx, 22 : " The disciples were already longing for 
high places ; the truth recalls them to the road by 
which they must gain the heights. By the bitter 



124 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

cup of sorrow tue attain to glory. What is that 
' which He had heard from His Father, and would 
make known to all His servants, that they might be 
His friends?' (John xv, 15.) Is it not the inward 
blessedness of love, the feast of the heavenly coun- 
try, of w T hich, by the breathings of His love, He 
daily gives our souls some foretaste. For in loving 
the heavenly things which we have received, we 
already know that which we love, love being itself 
knowledge. The friends of the Lord proclaim the 
news of the eternal home by word and life ; they 
enter into it through sorrows. But let him who 
has attained to the dignity of a friend of God, look 
on himself as he is in himself, and on the gifts re- 
ceived as something sublime, exalted above himself.' , 
The spiritual duties of his office were the dearest 
and weightiest to him ; his admonitory discourse to 
bishops shows how he was penetrated by the con- 
sciousness of the greatness and responsibility of the 
office of spiritual pastor. " There are but few la- 
bourers," he complains, " for the great harvest ; 
we cannot say it without sorrow ; for, although 
there is no lack of those who like to hear what is 
good, there is a lack of those who can preach it. 
See ! The world is full of priests, yet but few la- 
bourers for God's harvest are to be found ; be- 
cause, though we have indeed assumed" the priestly 
calling, yet we do not fulfil its duties. If any man 
is not able to address the whole congregation in a 
connected discourse, let him instruct individuals as 
far as he is able, edifying them in private conversa- 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 125 

tions, producing fruit in the hearts of his children 
by simple-hearted counsel. He must always con- 
sider what was said to the Apostles, and through 
them to us : ' Ye are the salt of the earth.' " He 
expresses his grief that the duty of preaching, the 
most important of all, should be neglected for the 
secular business connected with the episcopal office. 
"That what I say," he added, "may offend no one, 
I accuse myself at the same time, although it is 
with great reluctance, that, forced by the necessi- 
ties of our disturbed times, I yield to these things. 
For we have sunk into mere men of business. We 
neglect preaching, and still, to our condemnation, 
call ourselves bishops. Let us reflect — who has 
ever been converted through our words ? What 
gain have we brought to God — we who, after re- 
ceiving the talent, were sent out to traffic with it ? 
For He says : ' Occupy till I come.' Behold, He 
comes now ! Behold, He demands profit from our 
traffic ! What gain of souls shall we be able to 
show to Him from our trading ?" 

To a bishop of Messina, who wished to pay his 
respects to him at Rome, he wrote, wishing to avoid 
such empty honours : " Do not trouble yourself to 
come to me, but pray for us, that although we are 
separated from each other by the sea, we may, by 
Christ's aid, through love be united to each other 
in spirit ; that we, supporting each other by mutual 
admonitions, may one day resign the pastoral office 
intrusted to us, without reproach, into the hands 
of the coming Judge." 



126 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

To a bishop, whose unclerica] life he censured, 
he wrote : " You ought to acknowledge that you 
have undertaken not the care of earthly things, but 
the guidance of souls. To this you must bend your 
heart, — on this expend your whole solicitude, your 
whole diligence." To another he wrote : " Let 
the word be in our mouth and fervent zeal in our 
hearts, so that we may belong in truth to the num- 
ber of those of whom we read in the Acts ii, 3, for 
verily fiery tongues descend on us, when we be- 
come inflamed by the fervency of the Divine Spirit, 
to announce the word of exhortation to our brothers 
and sons." He himself once arose from his sick 
bed and preached with a feeble voice : " The voice 
(he said) fails beneath the exertion of speaking, and 
I confess that, because I cannot be heard by many, 
I am ashamed to speak amongst many. But I 
myself blame this shame in myself. What ! Be- 
cause I cannot profit many, shall I therefore not 
care for the few?" He preached, while the Lom- 
bard army was spreading its devastations into the 
neighbourhood of Rome itself; and he finally con- 
cluded his discourses on Ezekiel, which he did not 
continue further than the fortieth chapter, with 
these words : " Let no one blame me for leaving 
off this exposition ; for as you all see, our sorrows 
have reached the highest point, we are everywhere 
surrounded by swords, death threatens us on all 
sides. Some come back to us with their hands cut 
off, others we hear #re imprisoned or killed. What 
resource is there for us, but to thank God with 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 127 

tears, under the rod which is .the punishment of 
our sins ? For our Creator has become our Father 
through the Spirit of adoption which he has given 
to us. Sometimes He nourishes His children with 
bread, sometimes He corrects them with the rod ; 
both by sorrows and by gifts He educates them for 
their eternal inheritance." 

It was Gregory's strenuous endeavour to extend 
the study of the Scriptures among the clergy and 
the laity. He says in a sermon : " As we see the 
face of strangers and know not their hearts, until 
these are opened to us by confidential intercourse, 
— so, if only the history be regarded in the Divine 
word, nothing else appears to us but the outward 
cotuitenance. But when, by continual intercourse, 
we let it pass into our being, the confidence engen- 
dered by such communion enables us to penetrate 
into its spirit." " Often/' he observes elsewhere, 
" when we do something we believe it to be meri- 
torious. But if we return to the word of God, and 
understand its sublime teaching, we perceive how 
far behind perfection we stand." 

A bishop, whom Gregory advised to study the 
Scriptures, had excused himself on the plea that 
the troubles of the times would not permit him to 
read. Gregory showed him the barrenness of this 
excuse, referring him to Rom. xv, 4. " If," he re- 
plied, "the Holy Scripture is written for our conso- 
lation, we should read it more, the more we feel 
oppressed by the burden of the times." The bishop 
rejoined in the words of Matt, x, 19 ; misunder- 



128 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

standing the words, he thought to conclude from 
them that the minister of the Church, without being- 
bound to the study of the Divine word, need only 
rely on the immediate suggestion of the Holy Ghost. 
But Gregory knew well how to combat such an ex- 
cuse. " The Divine word is bequeathed to us in 
vain, if we, filled with the Spirit, do not require the 
outward word. But what we may rely on in the 
time of persecution is one thing, and what Ave 
should do in times of tranquillity is another ; for we 
must receive through this Spirit in reading, what, 
when occasion comes, we must prove in suffering." 
He reproached a physician of the Imperial Court, 
because, amidst the distractions of the world, he 
neglected the daily reading of the words of his Re- 
deemer. " What else is Holy Scripture," he wrote 
to him, " but a letter from the Almighty God to 
his creature ? Surely, if you resided far from the 
palace, and received a letter from the earthly empe- 
ror, you would not be able to rest or to sleep till 
you knew what he had written you. The King 
of heaven, the Lord of men and of angels, has sent 
you a letter to conduct you to eternal life, and yet 
you delay to read it zealously. Bestir yourself 
then, and meditate daily on the words of your 
Creator. Learn the mind of God in the word of 
God, that you may sigh for eternal things with 
more ardent desire, that your soul may be inflamed 
by greater longing after the heavenly joys. For 
all the deeper will be the rest of your soul when 
love to your Creator leaves you no rest. May the 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 129 

Almighty God himself infuse His Spirit into you, 
that you may attain to this ! May he fill your 
soul with his presence, and thus raise you to him- 
self!" 

Gregory did indeed use the saying of the Lord, 
" Ye are the salt of the earth," in too limited a 
sense, if he meant to restrict these words, applica- 
ble to all Christians as such, to the doctors of the 
Church as successors of the apostles. But it was 
far from him not to regard the vocation of labour- 
ing for the extension and furtherance of God's 
kingdom, as common to all Christians. After indi- 
cating the high dignity of priests from Mai. ii, 7 : 
" For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and 
they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the 
messenger of the Lord of hosts ;" he adds, referring 
to all the members of the congregation, " but you 
also may all obtain the high dignity of this name, 
if you wish it. For if every one of you, as far as 
he can, and as far as he has received grace from 
above, seeks to recall his neighbour from evil, and 
to exhort him to a good conversation, speaking to 
him words of holy admonition, he is thus truly the 
messenger of the Lord. And let no one say : I am 
not fit to advise others ; give as much as you can, 
that a strict account may not be required from you 
for having used ill the talent received ; for he who 
preferred rather to hide his talent, than to put it 
out to usury, had not received more than one. As 
far as you have yourself advanced, draw others to- 
wards you, seek to gain companions on the way to 



130 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

God. When one of you, my brethren, goes to the 
market or the bath, he invites any one who seems 
to him idle to go with him. Let this which you 
are wont to do in earthly things, serve you as an 
example ; and if God be your goal, endeavour not 
to reach it alone. For therefore is it written : Let 
him that heareth say 'Come,' (Rev. xxii, 17,) that 
whoever has heard the voice of celestial love in his 
heart, may speak words of exhortation to his neigh- 
bour. He may perhaps have no bread to give to 
the needy, but there is something greater, which 
every one who has a tongue can give. For it is 
more to refresh the soul destined to eternal life, by 
the nourishment of the word, than to satisfy the 
mortal body with earthly bread. Thus, my breth- 
ren, withhold not from your neighbour the alms 
of the word." And he says in another sermon : 
" There is no one who can truly say, I have re- 
ceived no talent, and so need render no account ; 
for the little that every poor man has received will 
be accounted to him as a talent. One has received 
knowledge ; he is bound to employ his talent in dis- 
charging the office of preacher. Another has re- 
ceived earthly goods ; the property, of whose use 
he has to render an account, is his talent. Another 
has neither knowledge of heavenly things nor su- 
perfluity of earthly goods, but he has learned a trade 
and supports himself by it ; his trade will be 
reckoned his talent. Another has none of these 
things : but perhaps he stands in a confidential rela- 
tion to some rich man ; if then he does not take ad- 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 131 

vantage of his position for the needy, he will be 
judged for the neglect of his talent." 

While recommending the study of Holy Scrip- 
ture, he discriminates between its false and its true 
use ; and counsels that manner of reading the Bible 
in which the regard to self-improvement should be 
paramount. " Those," says he, " who seek to 
fathom the mysteries of God beyond their power 
of comprehension, become unfruitful by their hun- 
ger : for they seek not what can train them in hu- 
mility, patience, and long-suffering, but only what 
serves to show off their learning and enables them 
to talk. They often speak boldly about the being 
of God, while they are so unfortunate as not to 
know themselves. While they strive after what 
they cannot comprehend, they neglect that which 
might have made them better men." 7 He shows, 
however, at the same time, how every one, seeking 
in the right way, may find an answer to his ques- 
tions, and the satisfaction of his wants in the Holy 
Scriptures. "God does not," he says, "answer 
individual minds by special voices, but he has so 
arranged his word as to answer all questions there- 
by. If we search for our particular cases in the 
Scripture, we find them there. A general answer 
is given therein to us all about that which each in 
particular suffers. Let the life of those who have 
gone before be a pattern for those who follow. To 
adduce one instance amongst many : When we are 
seized with pain or any bodily annoyance, we wish 
perhaps to know its hidden causes, finding some 



132 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

consolation even in knowing what it is which we 
suffer. But since no especial reply is bestowed on 
our especial search, we have recourse to the Holy 
Scripture. There we find how Paul, when he was 
tempted with the infirmities of the flesh, received 
this reply : My grace is sufficient for thee, my 
strength is made perfect in weakness." It was 
said to him in his particular infirmity, that it need 
not be particularly repeated to each one of us. 
Thus w r e hear the voice of God in the Holy Scrip- 
ture, on occasion of the sufferings of Paul, in order 
that we, if we have sorrows to bear, need not each 
one seek a similar voice for his own consolation. 
The Lord does not answer our every word, because 
He has once spoken and will not repeat it. That 
is to say, whatever was said to our fathers through 
the Holy Scriptures, w r as said for our instruction. 
The teachers of the Church may, therefore, confi- 
dently say, when they see many grieving and faint 
at heart, because God does not answer their every 
word, that God had once spoken and will not re- 
peat it ; that is to say, that he does not now come 
to the aid of -individuals in their thoughts and 
temptations, by special prophetic voices and an- 
gelic ministrations ; because the Holy Scriptures in- 
clude all that is necessary to meet individual cases, 
and they are constructed so as to mould the life of 
later times by the examples of the earlier." 

Greowy, no less than the earlier ecclesiastical 
doctors, combated the delusion that it is enough 
to confess the pure doctrines contained in the creeds, 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 133 

and to be zealous for these without the practical 
influence of faith on the life. To a bishop, who 
boasted to Gregory of his zeal in the conversion of 
heretics, and of whom he had good reason to think 
that he was not sufficiently concerned about the 
sanctification of himself and others, he wrote : "I 
thank Almighty God, that through you the teachers 
of error are recalled to the Church. But you must 
take care that those who are in the bosom of the 
Church so live, that they do not become her ene- 
mies by their bad conduct. For if, unconstrained, 
by love for Divine things, they serve earthly de- 
sires, in the very bosom of the Church herself chil- 
dren are nourished, alien to her." When Reocared, 
king of the Visigoths in Spain, was converted from 
Arianism to the doctrine of the Church, Gregory 
warned the first Spanish bishop, Leander of Seville, 
that whilst rejoicing at the king's conversion he 
should watch over him and see that the good work 
begun in him was completed, and that he should 
not exalt himself as if he had done enough good 
already ; that also, by the course of his life, he should 
show himself true to the faith he had confessed, 
that he might by his works prove himself a citizen 
of the eternal kingdom." And he wrote thus to 
the king himself on this event : " You must seek to 
observe great moderation in the discharge of your 
government, that the plenitude of power may not 
carry your soul away ; for government is only well 
conducted, when ambition does not vanquish honour. 
You must guard against allowing anger to insinuate 



134 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

itself, lest you should execute your determinations 
in a precipitate manner. Anger must not master 
the soul, when it punishes a crime, but it must 
obey reason as a servant ; for where it has once 
begun to take possession of the soul, it deems its 
own cruel actions just. Therefore it is written : 
' The wrath of men worketh not the righteousness 
of God.' " (James i, 4.) 

Although Gregory was credulous about the mira- 
culous tales of his time, and took delight in them, 
yet he was far from that thirst for marvels which 
forgets, in solitary instances of the miraculous, that 
which is the aim and centre of all miracles. He 
uttered many a golden word upon the true end of 
miracles which are addressed to the eye, to raise the 
gaze of men from the visible to the invisible, and on 
the relation of all miracles to that highest miracle, 
the goal of them all, — the w^ork of God in the 
minds of men redeemed and sanctified by Him, the 
work of the bringing forth of the new creature. In 
one place he speaks thus : ' When Paul came to 
Malta and saw the island full of unbelievers, he 
healed the father of Publius, — who was afflicted 
with dysentery and fever, — by his prayer ; and yet 
he said to Timothy, when he was sick, only this : 
1 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for 
thy stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities. ' 
Why, Paul, do you restore the sick unbeliever 
through your prayer, and for so great a fellow- 
labourer in the preaching of the Gospel, only pre- 
scribe natural remedies in the manner of a physi- 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 500. 135 

cian ? Is it not because external miracles serve the 
purpose of leading the soul to internal ones ; so that, 
by the outward appearance of the visible miracle, 
faith in the greater and invisible miracle is pro- 
duced ? The father of Publius had to be cured by 
such a miraculous sign, in order to be renewed in 
spirit, whilst he recovered his bodily health by the 
miracle. Timothy needed no outward miracle, be- 
cause he had already the inner life complete." And 
in another sermon : " Faith must be nourished by 
miracles, in order that it may grow ; for we also, 
when we plant herbs, water them until we see that 
they have taken firm root in the ground, and then 
we leave off watering them. A few of these mira- 
culous signs must be regarded more closely. For 
the Church works every day spiritually, what she 
then worked through the apostles corporeally. 
Those believers who renounce the language of their 
former worldly life, utter holy truths, and declare 
the praise and the power of their Creator, what do 
these but speak with other tongues? When they 
hear pernicious counsel, but do not suffer them- 
selves to be seduced to evil deeds, they drink, in- 
deed, fatal poison, but it does not harm them. 
When they see their neighbours weak in virtue and 
help them with all their might, strengthening them 
by their example, — what do they but lay their 
hands on the sick that they may be healed ? These 
miracles are surely the greater, the more spiritual 
thev are — greater, because not the body but the 
soul is awakened by them. These miracles, my 



136 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

dearest brethren, you can perform by God's grace, 
if you will. Strive after these miracles of love and 
piety, which are the more certain the more they 
are hidden." And, in another place : " We should 
distinguish between those gifts of the Spirit, with- 
out which we cannot attain to life, and those by 
which a testimony is given to the sanctity of our 
life for the good of others. For meekness, humility, 
patience, faith, hope, are gifts of the Spirit, but gifts 
without which men cannot attain to eternal life. 
The gifts of prophecy and of healing are also His 
gifts, but such as manifest the presence of His 
power for the good of the beholder." 

Gregory rejoiced in the success of the abbot 
Augustine, sent forth by him for the conversion of 
the Anglo-Saxons, who also believed himself sup- 
ported in his work by miracles. Gregory gave 
thanks for the Divine grace, but held it necessary 
to warn Augustine not to be unduly exalted on ac- 
count of it. Such a warning was very needful to 
this active missionary. There was danger lest the 
Divine work itself, of which he served as the in- 
strument, might be hindered by his want of hu- 
mility. Perhaps, if he had had more of this salt of 
all Christian virtue and labour, he might have suc- 
ceeded in effecting much for the confirmation and 
extension of the new Church in England ; even in 
inducing the ancient Britons, who, by their tradi- 
tional customs, and their spirit of ecclesiastical free- 
dom, were separated from the Romish Anglo-Saxon 
Church, to unite themselves into one whole with it 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 137 

The Britons consulted a pious hermit on the pro- 
posal made to them. He answered, that they might 
follow Augustine if he were a man of God. When 
they further questioned him, by what token they 
were to recognise a man of God, he replied : " If 
he be meek and lowly in heart, like the Lord, it is 
to be expected that he will bear the yoke of his 
master as a disciple of Christ, and not wish to im- 
pose on you any other burden. But if he be of a 
violent and proud spirit, it is clear that he is not 
born of God, and we must not give heed to his 
words." However, when they further asked, by 
what sio-ns thev would know whether he were a 
meek and humble man, he said, " they had better 
cause him and his retinue to enter first, and take 
their places in the assembly, where these affairs 
were to be discussed. If, when they afterwards 
went in, he rose at their entrance, they should ac- 
knowledge him as a servant of Christ. But if he 
remained sitting, although their numbers far ex- 
ceeded his, they were not to recognise hiin." Such 
an external sign is certainly very deceptive ; it may, 
however, as a spontaneous expression of the inward 
character, have a special significance. The character 
often shows itself most clearly in trifles, and this might 
be the case here. And the old Britons came to an 
accurate judgment when they found humility want- 
ing in Augustine, if it was true that he needed the 
advice and warning which Gregory gave him. 

Gregory wrote him this letter, imbued with the 
spirit of Christian wisdom : " Glory be to God in 



138 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

the highest, and on earth peace, and goodwill to 
men, because the ' corn of wheat is fallen into the 
ground, and has died,'' so that He, by whose death 
we live, by whose weakness we are made strong, 
by whose suffering we are saved from sufferings, 
from love to whom we seek out, in Britain, brethren 
whom we know not, through whose grace we have 
found those whom we sought without knowing 
them, shall not reign in heaven 'alone.' Is it not 
the word of Him who said : ' My Father worketh 
hitherto, and I work,' — who, in order to show thai 
He would not convert the world by human wisdom, 
but by His power, chose for the preachers whom 
He sent into the world unlearned men, which is. 
now being fulfilled in the performance of mighty 
things by weak instruments among the English 
people ? But, beloved brother, there is something 
in this heavenly gift which should cause you to 
fear in the midst of your great joy. You must 
indeed rejoice that the souls of the English are 
drawn to the inward grace by the outward mira- 
cles, but you must fear lest your weak soul be 
lifted up on account of the miracles which have 
taken place ; for we must remember that when the 
disciples returned delighted from their preaching, 
and told their heavenly Master, 'Lord, even the 
devils are subject to us in thy name,' they at once 
received this counsel — 'Rejoice not in that the 
spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice that 
your names are written in heaven/ While they 
were exulting in the miracle, they had suffered 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 139 

their souls to be invaded by a self-seeking and 
temporal joy. But they were thus recalled from 
a selfish to a universal, from a transitory to an 
eternal joy. For all the elect do not perform 
miracles, but all have their names written in hea- 
ven. The disciples of truth ought to rejoice only 
over that inheritance which they share in common 
with all, and of which the joy is without end. 

" This also remains for you to do, my dearest, 
brother : that whilst you work these things out- 
wardly by the power of God. you judge your own 
heart with strictness, — remembering well what you 
are. and how great the grace of God towards his 
people, in that he enables even you to work mira- 
cles for their sakes. If you recollect to hare 
sinned in any way against our Creator, bv word or 
by deed, recall it continually to your thoughts, that 
the consideration of guilt may repress rising pride. 
And remember in all the signs and wonders which 
you have received, that they were not given to you, 
but to those for whose salvation they were granted. 
It is necessary to restrain the soul from seeking its 
own honour in miracles, and from becoming elated 
with joy at its own elevation. Xothing but the 
winning of souls should be sought by miracles, 
and the glory of Him through whose power those 
miracles are accomplished. The Lord has given 
us one sign, however, at which we may indeed rejoice, 
and by which we may recognise our own election, 
when he says : ' By this shall every one know that ye 
are my disciples, if ye have love one to another,' " 



140 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

A golden counsel is this at all times, for all to 
whose labours the Lord gives great results, and 
who incur the temptations of wishing to glorify 
themselves in what God has done through them. 

A lady who was tormented by the sense of her 
sins, sought consolation from Gregory, and wrote 
to him that she would give him no peace until he 
told her that he had received a special revelation 
that her sins were forgiven. Gregory wrote to her 
that he was unworthy to receive a special revela- 
tion, and directed her to the fountain of the com- 
passion of the Redeemer, open to all, saying : " I 
know that you fervently love the Almighty God, 
and I confide in his mercy that these words from 
the lips of truth, are spoken in relation to you also, 
' Her sins, which are many, are forgiven — for she 
loved much.'" In a sermon, he says, concerning 
Christian self-knowledge : " The more holy men 
advance in the Divine life, the deeper insight do 
they gain into their own un worthiness ; for when 
they are nearest -to the light, they discover what 
had been hidden from them in their hearts, and 
their outward life appears to them so much the 
more odious, as that which they see within appears 
more beautiful. For every one is revealed to him- 
self when he becomes enlightened by contact with 
the true light ; in learning what holiness is, he also 
learns what guilt is." 

But he also warned men against that false hu- 
mility, which nourishes vanity by that which is the 
most contrary to all vanity and pride. " We know 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 141 

many," he says, " who, without being accused by 
any one, acknowledge that they are sinners ; but 
when blamed by any one else on account of their 
sins, seek to defend themselves in order not to ap- 
pear sinners. If such persons, when speaking of 
their own accord, acknowledged their sinfulness 
with genuine humility, they would not, when re- 
proached by others, deny their being what they 
themselves before confessed." 

Of the nature of self-denial, he says : " It is not 
enough to renounce our possessions, if we do not 
renounce ourselves. Whither then should we flee 
from ourselves ? We should renounce ourselves iii 
that which sin has made us, and remain ourselves 
in that which we have become through grace*" 
And in reference to this, he says elsewhere : " The 
more holiness daily grows in us through the Spirit 
of God, the more does our selfish nature decrease. 
We attain to a perfect stature in God, when we re- 
nounce ourselves entirely." 

Gregory always deprecated the externalizing and 
isolating of virtues and good works ; pointing out, 
that there is a close connexion between all that is 
really good, — that love is the soul of all good, with- 
out which nothing has any value. " Purity, sober- 
ness, distributing our property amongst the poor, 
are nothing, he says, without love. Satan trembles 
to see in us that true lowly love which we bear to 
one another ; he grudges us this harmony ; for we 
thus display that which he himself was not able to 
retain. Evil spirits fear the multitude of the elect, 



142 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

when they see them banded together against them 
by the unity of love. But how great the impor- 
tance of unity is, appears from this : that without 
it, the other virtues are not even virtues. " 

" In order to show mercy to the needy/' he says, 
" two things are requisite : a man to give, and a 
thing to be given. But the man is incomparably 
better than the thing. Thus, he who gives of his 
substance to his famishing neighbour, but does not 
guard his life from the evil one, gives his goods to 
God, and himself to sin. He has offered the meaner 
thing to his Creator, and preserved the nobler for 
the evil one. Then only is any sacrifice acceptable 
to God when the branches of piety spring from the 
root of righteousness." He terms love the com- 
pensating principle in all diversities of gifts among 
men, both corporeal and intellectual, because there- 
by the gifts peculiar to each are made common to 
all. In speaking of the diversities of gifts among 
the Apostles, who were appointed to supply and 
complete, he says : " The Almighty God deals with 
the souls of men as with the different countries of 
the earth. For He might have bestowed all pro- 
ductions on every country ; but if every land did 
not need those of others, there would have been no 
intercourse between them. Therefore, He gave to 
one a superabundance of wine ; to another, of oil ; 
to one, great numbers of cattle ; to another, rich- 
ness of vegetable productions ; so that, by each 
supplying what the other wants, the several lands 
become united by an interchange of gifts. As the 






GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 143 

different lands are related to each other, so are the 
souls of the saints, who share their gifts, like the 
countries their fruits, that all may be bound to- 
gether in one love." Thus Gregory shows how the 
variety and inequality among men is a necessary 
arrangement, and ordained by God, and the wish 
to reduce everything to an external uniformity, 
would be a mutilation of nature and a disturbance 
of Divine order : whilst the love resulting from the 
Gospel is the equalizing principle, all natural or 
conventional inequalities being but material for the 
manifestation and preservation of love. 

Of true prayer : " We see, dearest brethren," 
says Gregory, " in what great numbers you have 
assembled at this festival ; how you bow your 
knees, beat your breasts, utter words of prayer and 
confessions of sins, wet your faces with tears. But 
test, I beseech you, the quality of your prayers ; 
search whether you pray in the name of Jesus, that 
is, whether you ask for the joys of eternal salvation, 
for in the house of Jesus }-e seek not Jesus, if, in the 
very temple of eternity, you pray in an inordinate 
way for what is temporal. One prays for a wife, 
another for an estate, another for a maintenance. 
We may, indeed, when we want such things, pray 
to the Almighty God for them, but we must at the 
same time remember what our Saviour has com- 
manded us : ' Seek first the kingdom of God and 
his righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
unto you.' " 

And in another place : " True prayer consists not 



144 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

in the utterance of the lips, but in the feeling of the 
heart, for it is not our word but our desires, which, 
as a mighty voice, reach to the hidden ear of God. 
When we pray for everlasting life with the mouth, 
and do not desire it in the heart, our cry is only a 
silence. If we long for it out of the abundance of 
the heart, our silence is a cry, for in the inmost 
soul, in the desire of the heart, there is then the 
hidden cry, which does not reach human ears, yet 
fills the ear of the Creator." Of the operation of 
the Holy Ghost on the human mind, he says : " The 
breath of the Holy Spirit raises the human soul 
when it touches it, and, repressing earthly thoughts, 
influences the soul with heavenly longing, so that 
it has more joy in the things above than in any- 
thing else, and despises all that springs from the 
earth and the corruption of men. Thus, to com- 
prehend the hidden word, implies the reception of 
the Holy Ghost into the soul. This word can only 
be apprehended by him who has it. It is a thing 
to be felt, but cannot be expressed in words." 

Of the manifold modes in which the Holy Spirit 
draws men to himself and trains them, he says : 
" Sometimes God awakens us to repentance by love, 
sometimes by fear. Sometimes He shows the no- 
thingness of the present, and directs our desires to 
the love of the eternal ; sometimes He reveals eter- 
nal things to us first, that the temporal may appear 
as nothing in their light. Sometimes He represents 
to us our own sinfulness, thus softening us into 
compassion for the sins of others. Sometimes He 



GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME, A. D. 590. 145 

holds up to our view the wickedness of others, and 
by thus leading us to repentance, delivers us in a 
wonderful way from our own wickedness." 

A man who so well appreciated the nature of 
Christianity, as intended to influence the inward 
being of man, would necessarily understand that 
men, in order to lead their brethren to repentance, 
can only bring this Divine power near to their 
hearts by their life and doctrine, and that the work 
which the Lord alone can accomplish by His Spirit, 
cannot be enforced by human contrivance or power. 
And we find in his writings many beautiful obser- 
vations on this point, although he was sometimes 
carried away by untempered zeal, and did not al- 
ways faithfully act up to the opinions here laid 
down. He emphatically declares his disapproba- 
tion of those blind zealots who forcibly compelled 
the Jews in Italy to be baptized, or disturbed them 
in the free exercise of their religion. He wrote to 
a bishop of Xaples : " Those who sincerely seek to 
guide the unbelieving to the true faith, must try to 
effect their purpose in a friendly, and not in a vio- 
lent manner, lest the souls which might have been 
won by a patient exposition of doctrine, should be 
repelled by hostility. Those who act otherwise, 
and under the cloak of zeal seek to hinder them in 
their wonted religious observances, show that they 
are seeking their own things rather than the things 
of God. Why do we prescribe to the Jews rules 
for their Divine service if we cannot thereby win 

them ? "We should endeavour rather to draw them 
10 



146 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

to us by rational conviction and by mildness, and 
not cause them to shun us ; that, whilst arguing 
■with them from the Holy Scripture, we may con- 
vert them by God's grace." And to a bishop of 
Terracina : " Those who are still distant from Chris- 
tianity we must try to lead into the faith by gentle- 
ness and mildness, with admonition and persuasion ; 
lest those who might have been induced to believe 
by the gentle force of preaching, should be repulsed 
by threats and terror/' 



CHRISTIANITY IN POVERTY AND LOWLINESS, 
AND ON THE SICK BED. 

The working of Christianity is not less seen in small 
than in great things. It needs no grand or public 
theatre in order to display itself. It is the light 
that, wherever it may be, cannot remain hidden 
under the bushel. Indeed, what Christianity is, is 
best seen in this, that it fills with heavenly glory 
vessels despised or esteemed as nothing in the eyes 
of men — a glory which far outshines all earthly 
splendours ; that it pours into them the powers of 
the world to come, beside which all the powers of 
the earth are nothing. In all ages, that which the 
apostle Paul so nobly expresses in 1 Cor. i, 27, is 
evident in the operations of the Gospel. " God 
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to con- 
found the wise. And God hath chosen the weak 
things of the world to confound the things that are 
mighty, and base things of the world, and things 



CHRISTIANITY IN POVERTY. 147 

that are despised hath God chosen ; yea, the things 
that are not, to bring to naught the things that 
are." 

A large portion of these operations of Christianity 
remains, indeed, hidden from the eyes of the greater 
portion of mankind, and cannot, therefore, find a 
place in the pages of history. So much the more 
ivnwise, therefore, is it to judge of the effect of 
Christianity in any age, by what floats on the sur- 
face ; and so much the more important is it for the 
historian to search everywhere in the midst of the 
darkness for these scattered beams of light, aud by 
the side of a man whom God set on so high a 
place, and to whom he intrusted so broad and 
manifold a sphere of activity as Gregory, to intro- 
duce one who, in the meanest station of this world, 
in the neediest and most helpless condition, yet 
manifested the glory of the Divine life. 

We should know nothing of the life of this child 
of God, if the great bishop (Gregory) had, like the 
world, suffered himself to be so dazzled by appear- 
ances, as not to perceive the treasure in the earthen 
vessel. We will listen to the bishop himself, as he 
describes to us the life of this man. 

" In the vault through which we enter the church 
of Clermont, lived a certain Servulus, whom many 
among you know, as I know him, poor in earthly 
goods, rich in God, worn out by a long illness ; for, 
from his childhood until the end of his life, he lay 
paralyzed in all his limbs. Did I say he could not 
stand ? He could not even raise himself so as to 



t 



148 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

sit upright on his bed, he was never able to lift his 
hand to his mouth, nor even to turn from side to 
side. His mother and his brother were always with 
him to wait upon him, and what he received in 
alms he used to distribute to the poor. He could 
not read ; but he had bought himself a Bible, and used 
to welcome all pious men, and make them read to 
him from this Bible. And thus, without reading, 
he was, nevertheless, able to become acquainted 
with the whole Bible. He sought, amidst his suf- 
ferings, constantly to thank God, and to spend day 
and night in praising him. When he felt the ap- 
proach of death, he begged his visitors to stand up 
with him, and to sing Psalms with him, in expecta- 
tion of his approaching end. And, dying as he 
was, he sang with them, when suddenly he ceased, 
and cried aloud : (jJHush, hear you not how the 
praises of God resound in heaven V And while he 
turned the ear of his spirit to catch these praises 
of God, his holy soul departed from his body." ) 

Gregory appended to this narrative these words 
of exhortation to his Church : " Behold the end of 
him, who bore the sufferings of this life with resig- 
nation ! But I beseech you, my dearest brethren, 
think what excuse shall we be able to offer at the 
day of judgment, who, although we have received 
goods and hands, are slothful in good works, whilst 
this poor man, who had not the use of his hands, 
could, nevertheless, fulfil the commandments of the 
Lord? Even if the Lord should not lead forth 
against us the Apostles, who drew hosts of believers 



CHRISTIANITY IN POVERTY. 149 

into the kingdom by their preaching ; the martyrs, 
who, pouring forth their blood, entered the heavenly 
country ; what shall we say when we see this Ser- 
vulus, whose limbs were paralyzed by sickness, 
without paralyzing him in the accomplishment of 
good works ?" 

Let us compare with this Servulus — whose life 
in that maimed and helpless body was not spent in 
vain, who did more for the glory of his God and 
the good of his brother men, than others who lived 
in the splendour of the world, and in great activity 
— those noble Romans, of whom the younger Pliny 
speaks, who, in long and desperate sickness, with 
the stoic composure of the wise of this world, put 
an end to their lives with their own hands. We 
will not condemn the noble spirits to whom the 
grace of knowing the Gospel was not vouchsafed. 
But in which of the two do we find the true dignity 
of man, that true elevation which is founded in 
humility, and on that very account, can never be 
cast down or robbed of its crown ? 



150 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 



PART II. 

MEMOIRS FROM THE HISTORY OF MISSIONS IN THE 
MIDDLE AGES. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE HISTORY OF MIS- 
SIONS IN THIS AGE. 

The operations of Christianity are always radically 
the same, because they flow from its essential cha- 
racter, and its relations to human nature ; yet it 
makes some difference whether it is received amongst 
nations to whom it was previously quite unknown, 
either plunged in barbarism or endowed with a cer- 
tain degree of civilization, proceeding from some 
other form of religion, or whether it attaches itself 
to an already existing Christian tradition. In the 
latter case, it will indeed have to combat the same 
reactions of the nature of the old man, which, whilst 
they manifest themselves undisguisedly amongst 
nations to which Christianity is quite strange, are 
yet also to be met with under a Christian disguise 
where a Christian tradition is found. And even 
with those nations amongst which Christianity is 
now received, a class of men may ever be found 
who, in their condition of barbarous recklessness, 
have remained almost totally estranged from its 
influence, and in reference to whom our missionary 
activity is still needed, so that the distinction be- 
tween home and foreign missions is in this respect just. 



HISTORY OF MISSIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 151 

In foreign missions, we should distinguish be- 
tween the different conditions of the nations to 
which these missionary labours are directed, whether 
they are quite uncivilized, or whether they already 
possess a certain indigenous civilization. The 
principle of Christianity must always manifest it- 
self as a reforming principle ; whether it becomes 
to savage nations — bv beino* inorafted into the wild 
stock of the natural man — the germ of all the hu- 
man training needed by them. — or whether it intro- 
duces a new spirit into an already existing civiliza- 
tion. In this latter case, Christianity will find a 
point of contact in the previous national culture, 
but must purify, enlighten, and reanimate it, by 
that higher spirit of life which is lacking in all which 
is not born of the Spirit. In the former case, it 
will itself first communicate to the wild stock of 
human nature, the impulse and the energy for all 
kinds of civilization, corresponding to the individual 
characteristics of each nation. The latter operation 
we have seen in the first appearance of Christianity ; 
the former is exhibited amongst the nations of Ger- 
manic descent, in which Christianity prepared the 
way for the whole of the characteristic civilization 
of the Middle Ages. 

Whilst, among the ancients, the existing opposi- 
tion between nations seemed invincible, and civili- 
zation was deemed to be the privilege only of cer- 
tain tribes, — Christianity, on the other hand, dis- 
tinguishes between that which is founded in the 
original nature of man as it came from the hand of 



152 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

God, and that which has proceeded from sin. It 
teaches us to perceive that, whilst all nations are 
of one blood, and, by this common origin, have all 
received the same nature destined to be conformed 
to the image of God ; so, by means of redemption 
and regeneration, what has proceeded from the cor- 
ruption of sin, may again be restored in all men, 
and the cause of all opposition and division be over- 
come. And Christianity, as will more and more be 
seen in the " History of Missions," is able actually 
to accomplish that w^hich it sets before it as its 
ideal-goal and requirement; and even whilst the 
intellectual gifts of nations and individuals remain 
unchanged, to communicate, nevertheless, the same 
higher life to all, — to awaken, in all, the conscious- 
ness of that in which alone the dignity of man con- 
sists, and to lead to its realization. But how has 
Christianity brought this about? What was the 
characteristic of the process of culture everywhere 
carried on by it ? It is contained in the words of 
the Lord, that the new wine must not be poured 
into old bottles — a new piece must not be added to 
the old garment, but all must be made new. There 
is the same law in the education of nations as in 
that of individuals. It is the nature of Christianity 
not to mould and reform from without — not first to 
combat barbarism and vice in individual outbreaks ; 
lest the evil spirit which is cast out, should return 
with seven other spirits worse than himself, and the 
last state of that man be worse than the first. (Luke 
xi, 26.) Christianity does not begin with forcing 



HISTORY OF MISSIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 153 

the old nature into an outward propriety or mora! 
restraint ; nor with intruding on nations a civiliza- 
tion shaped in a foreign mould, as has been the case 
with other attempts at civilization, which have con- 
sequently repressed free individual life, and so con- 
tained in themselves the seeds of decay ; but by 
attaching itself to, or first calling forth, that con- 
sciousness of sin by which humanity feels itself 
separated from God, it imparts to those who had 
arrived at this consciousness, the joyful tidings of 
redemption ; and from the appropriation of this, 
the new life of faith and love develops itself in a 
Divine life — the opposite to all barbarism and decay, 
and the source of all true civilization. 

Athanasius speaks of this operation of Chris- 
tianity, at the time when this new creation first be- 
gan to manifest itself amongst those tribes of Ger- 
manic descent which had been brought by war into 
contact with the Roman empire. " Who amongst 
men," he said, " would ever have been able to con- 
quer so large a portion of the earth ; to penetrate 
amongst the Scythians, Ethiopians, Persians, Ar- 
menians, and Goths, who dwell beyond the ocean, 
and preach to them of the vanity of their idols, of 
virtue and purity of morals — who but our Lord 
Jesus Christ, ' the power of God ;' He who not 
only proclaimed salvation through his disciples, but 
was also able to move the minds of men amongst 
those nations to lay aside their barbarous customs, 
no more to honour then national gods, but through 
Him, to honour the Father. For in ancient times, 



154 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

when the Greeks and barbarians were given to 
idolatry, men waged war against each other, and 
were fierce to their kindred ; no one could travel 
by land or by sea without a sword in his hand, 
because there was irreconcilable hatred amongst 
them all. Weapons were amongst their neces- 
saries of life, and the sword instead of the staff was 
their indispensable stay. But now that the nations 
come over to the doctrine of Christ, they lay aside 
in a wonderful way, with truly contrite hearts, these 
savage customs, and no longer plan war, but all 
tends to peace. Who is it that has effected this, 
or who is it that has bound together those who 
hated each other ? Who else but the beloved Son 
of the Father, the common Saviour of all, Jesus 
Christ, who, because of his love, has suffered all 
things for our salvation ? For, from the beginning, 
the peace was proclaimed which was to proceed 
from Him : S And they shall beat their swords into 
ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks ; 
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither 
shall they learn war any more' Isa. ii. 4. And 
this can no longer seem incredible to us, since we 
see the barbarians, to whom rudeness of manners 
was habitual as long as they sacrificed to their idols, 
and who could not remain an instant without their 
swords, as soon as they receive the doctrine of 
Christ, turn from war to agriculture, and instead 
of arming their hands with weapons, clasp them in 
prayer ; instead of waging war against each other, 
arm themselves against Satan and his forces, and 



HISTORY OF MISSIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 155 

contend against them by virtue and purity of morals. 
This is a monument of the Divine power of the Sa- 
viour ; and to this is added yet this further marvel, 
that for Christ's sake they despise death, and die 
as martyrs for him." 

Jerome also, in his time, when men of the nation 
of the Goths, who were regarded by the Greeks 
and Romans as barbarians incapable of civilization, 
laid questions before him about the interpretation 
of Scripture, and a zeal for the study of the Scrip- 
tures was diffused amongst these wild tribes, (as we 
now see a similar zeal amongst the Australian tribes, 
in whom Christianity has produced a germ of civi- 
lization,) sees in this fact with Athanasius a fulfil- 
ment of this promise in Isaiah : " Who would have 
believed that the barbarous tongue of the Goth 
should search the primitive Hebrew Scriptures, and 
that, whilst the Greeks sleep, or quarrel with one 
another, Germany should seek to fathom the Word 
of God. Now I experience the truth, ' that God is 
no respecter of persons :' but in every nation he who 
feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted 
of Him Acts x, 34, 35. The finger which man- 
aged the arrow becomes soft enough to guide the 
pen ; the breast of the savage warrior is changed to 
gentleness." Then he quotes the above-cited pas- 
sages of Isaiah, and adds these words : " ' The wolf 
shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie 
down with the kid. The cow and the bear shall 
feed together, and their young ones shall lie down 
together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox,' 



156 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

Isa. xi, 6, 7. Not," adds Jerome, " that simplicity 
shall become savage, but that the savage shall learn 
simplicity." 

As such results could only flow from Christian- 
ity, so through Christianity alone could the impulse 
and the power be given to carry Divine light to 
savage nations. What was it that impelled men to 
leave their country and their kindred, in order to 
expose themselves to all kinds of difficulties and 
perils amongst savage nations ? It was the sense 
of the love of the Redeemer, which constrained 
him to exchange his glory for the wretchedness 
of men, and to yield himself up to death for sin- 
ners. The sense of this love constrained them to 
show similar love to their brethren who were still 
estranged from God, and to risk all in order to im- 
part to others that salvation in which they partook 
only by grace. 

It is precisely because Christianity works from 
within to mould the savage nature in all its parts — 
because therefore it did not give anything ready- 
made to the nations, but imparted to them the first 
germ of Divine life, from which all must develop 
itself freely and therefore gradually, that it had 
long to contend with the barbarism which it was 
thoroughly to overcome. In the frequently vain 
complaints of the barbarism of certain ages of the 
Church, it is forgotten that the true dignity of man 
does not consist in the harmonious development of 
all the spiritual and moral faculties of his nature, 
but in the reception of that Divine life into the 



HISTORY OF MISSIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 15 7 

depths of the soul, from which, indeed, when it has 
thoroughly penetrated the stock of human nature 
from root to branch, this harmonious development 
necessarily springs, but which can exist amidst the 
predominant mass of barbarism, and even propa- 
gate itself in the midst of the torrent. Thus, amidst 
the most barbarous ages, we find operations of the 
genuine Christian spirit or manifestations of that Di- 
vine life such as we have already seen in the pre- 
vious portion of this history, and which we shall 
not entirely miss in any of the subsequent ages. 
That fire which the Saviour came to enkindle 
amongst men, has since then never ceased in any 
acre to burn with a more or less bright flame. It 
could never be entirely quenched by the power of 
the spirit of the world. The living water of the 
Holy Spirit flows with more or less admixture 
through all the centuries. The highest and deepest 
things in humanity having in heaven their origin 
and their end, remain exalted above the changes 
and chances of time — ever the same — and all who 
have a portion in them feel and know themselves 
to be one with the band of belie vers in all times and 
in all places. Therefore the idea of progress, which 
belongs to the region of mutable things, can have 
no place here. 

We must, moreover, not forget that the rude 
Northern races were to diffuse their barbarism over 
the visible Church, in order in their turn to be re- 
moulded by it, a result which, in consequence of the 
freedom of man, could only be attained in this way. 



158 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIF.E. 

Christianity can indeed be propagated in a few 
generally comprehensible doctrines, which are pre- 
served by the power of God in the minds of men. 
These doctrines, as is shown by the experience of 
recent times amongst Hottentots, Greenlanders, and 
Negroes, as also by the experience of earlier ages, 
are such as to find access even amongst those defi- 
cient of all kind of civilization ; for everywhere there 
lies hidden in man something akin to God, which 
can only be awakened to consciousness by the reve- 
lation of its source, — can only be released from its 
veil of corruption by the breath from above. Ire- 
naeus was able to appeal to the fact, that without 
paper and ink, the doctrine of salvation could be 
written by the Holy Spirit on the hearts of those 
who were unacquainted with letters, and could not 
have received any doctrine in writing. 

But experience also teaches that Divine truth has 
never been able to propagate itself continuously, 
when the written records have not been added to 
the oral preaching ; those records from which every 
age and every individual may draw afresh the liv- 
ing truth in its purity, and appropriate it in its cha- 
racteristic and applicable form. By the propaga- 
tion of these records, the Divine contents could be 
preserved from all falsifications ; or, if these had 
arisen, could be purged from them. Certainly all 
which has proceeded from the operations of pure 
and genuine Christianity, — all which in all ages has 
been thought, and purposed, and done, and insti- 
tuted in the true Christian spirit, — is inwardly linked 



HISTORY OF MISSIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 159 

together ; all the operations of the Holy Spirit in 
the life of humanity, form one great invisible chain, 
and it must ever give us a holy joy when we can 
recognise the links of this chain in history, and in 
this sense trace a Christian tradition in all times and 
places in which the Gospel has been preached. 
But this operation of the Holy Ghost, this Christian 
tradition flowing from it, is never, and nowhere, 
pure and untroubled, but is everywhere, and at all 
times, disturbed by the mixture of the flesh, and of 
that which is not Divine. Everywhere, and always, 
we find in tradition the Antichristian beside the 
Christian, as every one must in himself, in his in- 
ward and outward life, be conscious of the same 
mixture, and what is seen in a small scale in the 
life of every individual Christian, is seen on a large 
scale in the life of the whole Church. "We are thus 
always in danger of confounding' the Christian with 
the unchristian, what is of the flesh with what is 
of the "Spirit ; if we have not in the Divine Word, 
which mirrors to us 'purely the operations of the 
Holy Spirit, a trustworthy source of knowledge, a 
sure testing principle, a fixed rule, by which, as in 
our own souls, so also in the traditions of the whole 
Church, to separate that which is of God from that 
which is not. 

And the experience of all ages teaches us fur- 
ther, that Christianity has only attained a firm and 
living growth, when, according to its essential ten- 
dency, if working vitally, it bears with it the germ 
of all human civilization, however gradually this 



160 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

may be developed. Christianity could not last 
amongst a nomad tribe, as is evidenced by the 
history of the Arab races, amongst others. It 
could indeed there, as in all other cases, find ac- 
cess ; but if it really obtained a firm footing, it 
must bring about a complete revolution in the 
whole mode of living. Wisely, therefore, did the 
first Christian teachers of the barbarous nations, 
impart a knowledge of letters with that of Chris- 
tianity, for the sake of Christianity itself, and also 
to be the germ of all future culture for the people 
and the country. Thus, in the fourth century, the 
admirable Ulphila invented an alphabet for his 
Goths, and gave them the word of God in their 
own language. Patrick gave letters as well as 
Christianity to the Irish ; he imparted to his scho- 
lars the little store of knowledge which he pos- 
sessed, and also zeal for the attainment of more. 
The convents of Ireland, insured by its isolated 
position against the ruin which fell on the rest of 
Europe, became schools where, in quiet solitude, 
religion and science were cherished in close con- 
nexion with one another, and from which both 
Christianity and the germs of scientific culture 
were transplanted into other countries ; as Abbot 
Alcuin, while he exhorted the Irish monks to make 
further efforts, " that through them, and from them, 
the light of truth and science might be spread over 
all parts of the world," also reminded them that, 
in old times, the most learned teachers had come 
forth from Ireland to Britain, France, and Italy, 



HISTORY OF MISSIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 161 

and liad thereby brought great gain to the Church. 
If other religions, reposing on a blind faith, had 
cause to fear the light of science, which revealed 
the untenable nature of their doctrines, Christi- 
anity, on the contrary, both in its first efforts to 
penetrate the spritual life of humanity or of a na- 
tion, and in its reappearence in new purity and 
glory, entered into an alliance with scientific cul- 
ture. It was thus at the Reformation, that work 
of God for the restoration of the Apostolic Church, 
Luther says beautifully, in a letter to Eoban Hess, 
in 1523: "I see that there never has been an espe- 
cial revelation of the Divine Word, when God has 
not first prepared the way by the resuscitation of 
languages and sciences, as by the forerunning of 
John the Baptist,"* 

When the Christian Church was founded in 
England amongst the Anglo-Saxons, many of all 
ranks were seized with such a thirst for knowledge, 
that they visited the cells of the Irish monks, who 
shared with them in Christian love their spiritual 
and temporal goods, giving them daily mainte- 
nance, books, and instruction without recompense. 
In the second half of the seventh century, an ad- 
mirable old man, Theodore of Cilicia, who brought 
sciences with him from Greece, made a progress 
through all England, as Archbishop of Canterbury, 
with his friend Abbot Hadrian, and sought to gather 
scholars around him. The instructions which were 

° See Luther's Briefe hcraus^egeben von Dr. de Wette, 
B, II. 

11 



162 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

thus communicated to the English Church were 
soon after collected together by Bede, that simple 
and thoughtful as well as inquiring and scientific 
priest and monk. This man, who shone as a light 
for his own and subsequent times, says himself of 
his life since his seventh year : "I have used all 
diligence in the study of the Holy Scriptures, and 
in the observance of the conventual rules, and the 
daily singing in the Church ; it was ever my joy, 
either to learn, or teach, or write something." 

The last days of this man, who is a model of a 
true Christian teacher, and met his death as he 
was exercising his calling amongst his devotedly 
attached pupils, is described to us by Cuthbert, 
who was one of them. He mentions how Bede 
passed the last weeks of his life in a sickness, which 
brought him to the grave, A. D. 735, in his sixty- 
third year. We will let the scholar himself speak : 
"He lived joyfully, giving thanks to God day and 
night, yea, at all hours, until the Feast of the As- 
cension ; every day he gave lessons to us, his pu- 
pils, and the rest of his time he occupied himself 
in chanting psalms. He was awake almost the 
whole night, and spent it in joy and thanksgiving ; 
and when he awoke from his short sleep, immedi- 
ately he raised his hands on high, and began again 
to give thanks. He sang the words of the Apostle 
Paul : ' It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands 
of the living God.' He sang much besides from 
the Holy Scriptures, and also many Anglo-Saxon 
hymns. He sang antiphons according to our and 



THE VENERABLE BEDE. A. D. ?35. 163 

his custom, and amongst others this one : ' King 
of glory, Lord of power, who this day didst ascend 
a victor above all the heavens, leave its not or- 
phaned behind thee, but send to us the promised 
Spirit of the Father. Hallelujah/ And when he 
came to the words 'leave us not orphaned behind 
Thee.' he burst into tears. And in an horn- he be- 
gan to sing again. We wept with him — now we 
read — then we wept — but we could not read with- 
out tears. Often would he thank God for sending 
him this sickness ; and often would he say. | God 
chasteneth the son whom he loveth.' Often, too, 
would he repeat these words of St. Ambrose : ' I 
have not lived so that I should be ashamed to live 
amongst you ; yet neither do I fear to die, for we 
have a good Lord.' Besides the lessons which he 
gave us, and his psalm-singing during those days, 
he composed two important works : — a translation 
of the Gospel of St. John into our native tongue, 
for the use of the Church : and extracts from Isi- 
dore of Seville ; for he said : ' I would not that 
my pupils should read what is false, and after my 
death should labour in vain.' 

" On the Tuesday before Ascension Day, his 
sickness increased, his breathing became difficult, 
and his feet began to swell. Yet he passed the 
whole day joyfully, dictating. At times he would 
say : ' Make haste to learn, for I do not know how 
long I shall remain with you, whether my Creator 
will not soon take me to himself.' The following 
night he spent in prayers of thanksgiving. And 



164 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

when Wednesday dawned, he desired us diligently 
to continue writing what we had begun. When 
this was finished, we carried the relics in proces- 
sion, as is customary on that day. One of us then 
said to him : ' Dearest master, we have yet one 
chapter to translate ; will it be grievous to thee, if 
we ask thee any further?' He answered: 'It is 
quite easy — take the pen and write quickly.' At 
three o'clock he said to me : 'Run quickly, and 
call the priests of this convent to me, that I may 
impart to them the gifts which God has given me. 
The rich of this world seek to give gold and silver 
and other costly things ; but with great love and 
joy will I give to my brethren what God has given 
me.' They all wept, chiefly for that he said, that 
in this world they should see his face no more. 
But they rejoiced in that he said : < It is time that 
I go to my Creator, I have lived long enough, the 
time of my departure is at hand, for I long to de- 
part and be with Christ.' Thus did he live till 
evening. Then that scholar said to him : ' Dearest 
master, there is only one passage left to write?' 
He answered: 'Write quickly.' Soon the scholar 
replied : ' Now this also is written.' He answered : 
1 Thou hast well said. It is finished. Raise my 
head in thy hand, for it will do me good to sit op- 
posite my sanctuary, where I was wont to kneel 
down to pray ; that sitting, thus I may call upon 
my Father.' So he seated himself on the ground 
in his cell, and sang the ' Glory to Thee, God, 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; 7 and when he 



CLOVIS AND CLOTILDA, A. D. 486. 165 

had named the Holy Ghost, he breathed his last 
breath." 

We have already spoken of the various modes 
of conversion : whether effected in a purely spirit- 
ual way, proceeding from within outwards, by an 
impression on the inward nature ; or whether men, 
in whom the needs of the higher life were not yet 
felt, were led from the corporeal to the spiritual, 
from the outward to the inward, from the earthly 
to the Divine. As regards the latter, great results 
were often prepared by trifling circumstances, which, 
nevertheless, gained a peculiar significance by a cer- 
tain concatenation of events, — results which, with- 
out such a concatenation, without this connexion 
with other operations of a higher nature, could not 
have ensued. How important was the great draught 
of fishes in leading the apostle Peter to Christ ! and 
thus, also, the earlier and later history of missions, 
teaches how, by trifling outward events, much was 
often done towards the conversion of individuals 
and of nations. It made, indeed, a great differ- 
ence, whether the outward impulse led to a true 
inward conversion, or whether the result remained 
merely external. 

Clovis, the pagan king of the Franks, was des- 
titute of all special interest in religious subjects ; he 
lived after the customs of his fathers, without trou- 
bling himself about religion. His gods were only 
known to him as mighty beings, whom he feared, 
and whose help he sought to win in his wars. 
Looking at religion from this point of view, the mis- 



166 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

fortunes of the fallen Roman empire were to him a 
proof that the God of the Romans was no mighty 
being. But he espoused the pious Christian prin- 
cess, Clotilda of Burgundy. She often spoke to 
him of the nothingness of his gods, and the power 
of the God whom she worshipped. Clovis con- 
stantly combated her with his argument from the 
impotence of Rome. But, doubtless, even more 
than her discourses, must the example of her pious 
life have impressed the heart of the rough heathen ; 
that influence of daily intercourse which leaves at 
last even the roughest not wholly unmoved, — the 
example of her confident faith and prayer, — al- 
though the king may himself have been unconscious 
of the impression, and have resisted all her exhor- 
tations. She obtained permission to have her first 
child baptized. But when soon after the child 
died, Clovis was thereby confirmed in his unbelief. 
The pious mother did not suffer herself to be mis- 
led by this, but rather expressed her joy, that her 
babe was counted worthy to pass in the robes 
of innocence into the assembly of the blessed. 
Clovis permitted her to have a second child bap- 
tized. It fell sick, and Clovis prophesied that 
it too would die. But Clotilda prayed fervently 
and trustfully for the deliverance of her child. 
When the child actually recovered, she told her 
husband with joyful assurance, what her prayers 
had obtained. She employed yet another means, 
seeking to bring together everything which could 
contribute to change the mind of her husband. 



THE CONVERSION OF CLOVIS, A. D. 490. 167 

From ancient times, many churches which had been 
built on the graves of holy men, especially of 
martyrs, had been famed for the marvellous cures 
of various diseases, particularly nervous diseases, 
which had been effected there. Whether it be, 
that espe€ial answers to prayer were there experi- 
enced — for the love of God meets the longing of 
the pious heart, even when it is mixed up with er- 
roneous ideas — as in the woman with the issue of 
blood, (Luke viii, 44 ;) or that the agitation of reli- 
gious feeling exercised a strong influence on the 
condition of the body ; or whether, as was some- 
times undoubtedly the case, deception was prac- 
tised about these cures : however this might be, 
Clotilda spoke from sincere conviction, when she 
directed the attention of her husband to such cures 
effected at the tomb of Margin, bishop of Tours; 
and the less he was able to explain them, the greater 
the impression they must have made on him. 

It was in reference to this, that Xicetius, bishop 
of Treves, wrote thus in the year 561, to Chlodes- 
winde, queen of the Lombards, the granddaughter 
of Clotilda : " You have heard from your grand- 
mother Clotilda, how, after her arrival in France, 
she converted king Clovis to Christianity, and as he 
was a man of great acuteness, he would not rest 
until he ascertained the truth of these miraculous 
cures. As soon, however, as he recognised the 
truth of what had been related to him, he bowed 
himself down humbly on the grave of Martin, and 
was immediately baptized." 



168 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

But it was another circumstance which gave the 
first impulse to the wavering mind of Clovis. In 
the battle of Zulpich, against the Alemanni, A. D. 
486, his army had become entangled in a perilous 
situation ; in vain had he called on his gods for 
help. Then he turned to the God of the Christian, 
called on him for aid, if he were indeed Almighty, 
and vowing to become a Christian. His victory 
was to him a proof of the might of the God of the 
Christians, as, formerly to Constantine, his victory 
over Maxentius and Licimus. Remigius, bishop of 
Rheiins, whom he now sent for, was easily able to 
find access to a mind already so prepared. As he 
related to him the history of the Passion of our 
Lord, the king exclaimed : " If I had been there 
with my Franks, I would soon have chastised those 
Jews." 

Such outward providences and impressions might 
often, in leading the heathen to recognise Christ as 
a mighty Being, prepare them also to receive Him 
as the Redeemer from the misery of sin ; and whilst 
at first they only learned to place Him as a new god 
beside their old gods, they might at length learn to 
know him as the only true God, and the Almighty 
Creator. 

Anschar, the apostle of the North, who was sus- 
tained by no earthly power in the preaching of the 
Gospel, often experienced the help of God in diffi- 
cult situations, by means of outward circumstances, 
which made a powerful impression on the heathen, 
When, in 823, he had undertaken his second mis- 



WITSTOCK OF POMERAXIA, A. D. 1124. 169 

sionary journey to Sweden, he found at first an un- 
favourable feeling produced on the heathen, by the 
representations which had been made to them of 
the indignation of then' gods against the worship of 
a strange God. An assembly of the people was 
held to deliberate on this question, and it had a 
great effect on this assembly, when an old man 
stepped forth and said : " Hear, king and people ! 
It is already known to many amongst us, that this 
God can afford great help to those who trust in 
him, for many of us have proved this in perils at 
sea, and in manifold dangers." With this we may 
compare what Adam of Bremen says of Sweden, 
in the second half of the eleventh century. " When 
they are pressed in battle, they call on one amongst 
the many gods whom they worship for aid, and to 
him, if they are victorious, they afterwards es- 
pecially devote themselves, giving him a prece- 
dence over the rest. But they already declare the 
God of the Christians to be mightier than all ; they 
say that the other gods often deceive, but that this 
God manifests himself on all occasions as the surest 
defence." 

Whilst Otho, bishop of Bamberg, the apostle of 
the Pomeranians, was labouring in 1124, for the 
first time, towards the foundation of the Christian 
Church in Stettin, he succeeded in converting and 
baptizing a man of high rank in the nation, called 
Witstock. Although his knowledge of Christianity 
was as yet by no means pure, this man had never- 
theless a firm and strong faith. The imao-e of the 



170 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

excellent bishop, whom he saw labouring with such 
self-sacrificing love and such a firm trust in God, 
seems in particular to have left a strong impression 
on his mind, as the Saviour is wont most power- 
fully to manifest himself in the lives of those who 
have truly received him, and by his image engraven 
on them to win others to himself. After his con- 
version, Witstock would only wage war against the 
heathen, his unenlightened zeal seeking thus to 
manifest itself. In one battle he was taken pri- 
soner, with many others, carried off to the still 
heathen island of Riigen, and there -put in chains. 
During his imprisonment, he found his strength and 
consolation in prayer. One night when he fell 
asleep after fervent prayer, his revered bishop 
Otho appeared to him in a dream, and promised 
him help. This cheered him much. He was af- 
terwards liberated by many remarkable provi- 
dences. He looked on his deliverance as a mira- 
cle ; as a witness to the holy life of Otho, and to 
the Divine origin of Christianity. It was to him 
a call from God to bear witness amongst his coun- 
trymen for the God who had so delivered him, 
and to labour for the propagation of his worship 
amongst them. On his return, he caused the skiff 
in which he had escaped to be suspended at the 
gate of the city as a constant memorial of his de- 
liverance, and a testimony for Him who had so de- 
livered him. 

When afterwards the bishop reappeared amongst 
the people of Stettin, who had for the most part 



EDWIN OF XORTHUMBRIA. 171 

relapsed into idolatry, Witstock said to him, in re- 
ference to this skiff, " This boat is the witness to 
thy holy life, the confirmation of my faith, and the 
proof that God has sent me to this people." And 
he was the especial instrument in again preparing 
the way for the preaching of Bishop Otho, and in 
leading back the apostates to the Lord. A beau- 
tiful contrast to the indifferent and careless Clovis 
is found in Edwin, the pagan king of Northum- 
bria, during the first part of the seventh century. 
His marriage with a Christian princess from the 
kingdom of Kent was, with him, as with Clovis, 
the first step to his conversion. But Edwin was 
more susceptible of religious impressions, and more 
disposed to meditation on Divine things. He first 
renounced idolatry, and remained a long time in a 
state of indecision. He caused himself to be more 
fully instructed in Christianity by Bishop Paulinus, 
who had accompanied his wife, conversed much on 
religion with those of his ©Teat men whom he 
deemed the wisest, and was often seen alone, lost 
in deep musings. At length he assembled the 
great and the wise of his people for a last con- 
sultation on the great subject. 

In this assembly one of the nobles arose and 
said : " It seems to me to be, in this earthly life of 
ours, with regard to what is uncertain to us, just 
as if, when ye were sitting at table in winter with 
your officers and servants in the well-warmed hall, 
whilst wind and snow were raging outside, a spar- 
row came and flew swiftly through, from one open- 



172 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LITE. 

ing to another. Whilst it is within, it is not touched 
by the wintry tempest ; but when the brief moment 
of repose is over, it soon vanishes from our eyes, 
returning from the storm to the storm. Thus is 
this earthly life'of man only visible, as it were, for 
a brief moment, whilst of what has gone before, 
or of what shall follow, we know nothing what- 
ever. If, therefore, this new doctrine brings us 
something more certain, we shall do well to fol- 
low it." 

Bishop Paulinus, who was present at the assem- 
bly, was then asked to make a statement of the 
Christian doctrine, and the chief -priest himself de- 
clared afterwards : " Long already have I known 
that what we have worshipped is nothing, since 
the more zealously I sought for truth in that re- 
ligion, the less I found it. Now, however, I con- 
fess openly that the truth, which is able to confer 
on us the gift of life, salvation, and eternal happiness, 
has been made manifest to me in this discourse." 

And when the question was proposed, who would 
be the first to commence the destruction of the 
temples and altars of the idols, this priest offered 
himself for the service. " For," said he, "who is 
better fitted than I to destroy that which in my 
foolishness I worshipped, now that wisdom is given 
me from the true God ?" 

As a contrast also to Clods and Const antine, 
may be adduced Pomare, the first Christian king 
of Tahiti, as he is described by the English mis- 
sionaries. 



PATRICK OF IRELAND. 173 

THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF INDIVIDUAL MIS- 
SIONARIES. 

PATRICK, THE APOSTLE OF THE IRISH. 

This remarkable man was prepared by very pecu- 
liar circumstances for bis important work ; and in 
his instance also it may be seen, bow that infinite 
wisdom which guides the development of the king- 
dom of God amongst men, is able to bring great 
things out of what seems insignificant to the eyes 
of men. 

Patrick, called in his native tongue Succath, was 
born A. D. 372, in a village between the Scottish 
towns of Dumbarton and Glasgow, (then appended 
to England,) in the village of Bonaven, since named 
in honour of him Kilpatrick. He was the son of 
a poor unlettered deacon of the village church. 
Xo particular care was bestowed on his education, 
and he liyed on light-heartedly from day to day, 
without making the religious truths taught him by 
his parents matters of personal interest, until his 
seventeenth year. Then it happened that he was 
awakened by a severe chastisement from his hea- 
venly Father from this sleep of death to a higher 
life. Some pirates of the wild tribe of the Scots, 
who then inhabited Ireland, landed at the dwelling- 
place of Patrick, and carried him off with other 
captives. He was sold into slavery to a Scottish 
prince, who committed to him the care of his flocks 
and herds. Necessity directed his heart to that 
God, of whom in his days of rest in his father's 



1^4 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

house, he had not thought. Abandoned of men, 
he found consolation and blessedness in Him, and 
now first learned to perceive and enjoy the trea- 
sures which the Christian has in heaven. Whilst 
he roamed about with his flocks through ice and 
snow, communion with his God in prayer and quiet 
contemplation were his portion. Let us hear how 
he himself, in a confession which he subsequently 
wrote, describes this change which took place in 
him. "I was about sixteen years old, and knew 
nothing of the true God, when I was led into cap- 
tivity with many thousands of my countrymen, as 
we deserved, in that we had departed from God, 
and had not kept his commandments. There God 
opened my unbelieving heart, so that I, although 
late, remembered my sins, and turned with my 
whole heart to the Lord my God, to him who had 
regarded my lowliness, had had compassion on my 
youth and my ignorance, and had watched over me 
before I knew him, — who, ere I knew how to 
choose between good and evil, had guarded and 
cherished me as a father doth his son. This I 
know assuredly, that, before God humbled me, I 
was like a stone lying sunk in deep mire ; but he 
who is able came, he raised me in his mercy, and 
set me on a very high place. Therefore must I 
loudly bear witness to this, in order in some mea- 
sure to repay the Lord for such great blessings in 
time and eternity, great beyond the apprehension 
of human reason. When I came to Ireland," he 
says, " and used daily to keep the cattle, and often 



PATRICK OF IRELAND. 1*75 

every day to pray, the fear and the love of God 
were ever more and more enkindled in me, and my 
faith increased, so that in one day I spoke a hun- 
dred times in prayer, and in the night almost as 
often, and even when I passed the night on the 
mountains, or in the forest, amidst snow, and ice, 
and rain, I would wake before daybreak to pray. 
And I felt no discomfort; there was then no sloth 
in me, such as I find in my heart now, for then 
the Spirit glowed within me." 

After he had passed six years in the service of 
this prince, he thought he heard a voice in his sleep 
which promised him a speedy return to his native 
land, and soon afterwards announced to him that a 
ship was already prepared to take him. In re- 
liance on this call, he set out, and after a journey 
of many days, he found a ship about to set sail. 
But the captain would not at first receive the poor 
unknown youth. Patrick fell on his knees and 
prayed. He had not finished his prayer before 
one of the ship's company called him back, and 
offered him a passage. After a wearisome voyage, 
in which he experienced from the grace which 
guided him many a deliverance from great peril, 
and many a memorable answer to prayer, he ar- 
rived once more amongst his people. Many years 
after this, he was again carried off by pirates. But 
in sixteen days, by the special guidance of Provi- 
dence, he regained his freedom, and again returned, 
after many fresh perils and fatigues, to his people. 
Great was the joy of his parents to see their son 



176 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

again after so many perils, and they entreated him 
thenceforth to remain with them always. But 
Patrick felt an irresistible call to carry to the peo- 
ple amongst whom he had passed the years of his 
youth, and amongst whom he had been born again 
to the heavenly life, the tidings of that salvation 
which had been imparted to him by Divine grace 
whilst amongst them. As the apostle Paul was 
by the Lord called, in a nocturnal vision, to carry to 
the people of Macedonia the first tidings of salva- 
tion, so there appeared to Patrick one night, in a 
vision, a man from Ireland with many letters. He 
gave him one, and Patrick read the first words, 
" The words of the Irish." And as he read these 
words, he thought he heard the simultaneous cry of 
many Irish tribes dwelling by the sea, " We pray 
thee, child of God, come and dwell once more amongst 
us." He could not read further from the agitation 
of his heart, and awoke. Another night, he thought 
he heard in a dream a heavenly voice, whose last 
words only were intelligible to him ; namely, these 
words, " He who gave His life for thee, speaks in 
thee." And he awoke full of joy. One night it 
seemed to him as if something that was in him and 
yet above him, and was not himself, prayed with 
deep sighings, and at the end of the prayer it 
spoke as if it were the Spirit of God himself. And 
he awoke, and remembered the expressive words 
of the apostle Paul concerning the inward com- 
munion of the children of God with his Spirit. 
" The Spirit itself helpeth our infirmities. For we 



PATRICK OF IRELAND. 1 V 7 

know not what we should pray for as we ought, 
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with 
groanings which cannot be uttered." And in 
Rom. Aiii, 24 : " Christ which also maketh inter- 
cession for us." 

As the Almighty Shepherd of souls does not 
draw all to Himself by the same means, nor guide 
and nourish them alike, but on the contrary reveals 
and communicates himself to them in divers man- 
ners, according to his various purposes for them and 
their various wants, it pleased Him to grant Patrick, 
by many manifestations of His grace, the pledge of 
the certainty of his fellowship with Himself, and of 
his call to preach the Gospel in Ireland. His pa- 
rents and friends sought to hold him back, repre- 
senting to him that such an undertaking far ex- 
ceeded his capacity. He himself informs us of 
this when he says, " Many dissuaded me from this 
journey, and said behind my back, ' Why does this 
man throw himself into danger amongst the hea- 
then who do not know the Lord ?' It was not said 
maliciously, but they could not comprehend the 
thing on account of my rustic life and manners." 
But nothing could mislead him, for he trusted in 
the power of the Lord, who imparted to him the 
inward confidence that He had called him, and was 
with him. He himself says of this, " Whence came 
to me so great and blessed a gift, that I should 
know and love God, and be able to forsake my 
country and my kindred, although large gifts were 

offered me with many tears if I would remain ? 
" 12 



178 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

And against my will I was compelled to offend 
many of my kindred and my well-wishers. But, 
by God's guidance, I yielded not to them ; it was 
not my own power, it was God who triumphed in 
me, and resisted them all ; so that I went amongst 
the people of Ireland to preach to them this Gos- 
pel, prepared to suffer much contempt from the 
unbelieving, and many persecutions, even to chains, 
and if needful to sacrifice my freedom for the good 
of others. And if I am counted worthy, I am 
ready also to lay down my life with joy for His 
name's sake." 

Patrick accordingly went to Ireland in the year 
431. He could now make use of his early pro- 
ficiency in the Irish language. He gathered great 
multitudes of the people together in the open air 
by beat of drum, to tell them of the sufferings of the 
Saviour for sinful men ; and the doctrine of the Cross 
manifested its characteristic power over many hearts. 

Patrick met indeed with much opposition ; the 
priests and national bards, who possessed great in- 
fluence, excited the people against him, and he 
had to endure many a hot persecution. But he 
overcame by his steadfastness in the faith, by his 
fervent zeal, and by a love which drew all hearts 
to itself. The following incident furnishes us with 
a beautiful example of the power which he exer- 
cised over the heart. 

He was once in a family of rank, whose members 
he baptized. The son of the house conceived such 
an affection for Patrick, that he resolved, in spite 



PATRICK OF IRELAND. 179 

of all the opposition of his family, to forsake all, 
and follow the preacher of the Gospel through all 
dangers and difficulties. Patrick bestowed on him 
the name of Benignus, on account of his gentle and 
affectionate character. He availed himself of the 
fine voice of the youth to influence the people by 
means of hymns. Benignus was his zealous fellow- 
labourer in the preaching of the Gospel until his 
death, and then became his successor in the pas- 
toral office. Many of the national bards also were 
converted by him, so that they themselves sang in 
their songs the nothingness of the idols, and the 
praises of God and of Christ. Patrick addressed 
himself especially to the chiefs and princes of the 
people. They could do the most mischief if they 
were excited by the Druids against the strange re- 
ligion, and, on the other hand, if they received the 
Gospel, they might make their people also more 
accessible, and form a counterbalance to the influ- 
ence of the Druids. Many of these chiefs were also 
probably more easily persuaded of the vanity of 
idolatry on account of their superior education.* 

° The apostle Paul says : — " God hath, not left himself 
without witness in any nation ; He is not far from 
every one of us ; for in him we live, and move, and have 
our being." He says of men in general : " Because that 
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God 
hath showed it unto them ; for the invisible things of 
Him, (His invisible essence,) that is, his eternal power 
and Godhead, are clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that are made, namely, by the creation of the 
world." In the midst of the reign of the darkest idolatry, 



180 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, 

But he by no means sought through the conversion 
of the princes to bring about a mere external con- 
version of the multitude. He frequently travelled 
through the whole island, attended by many of his 
scholars and assistants, read to the assembled peo- 
ple something from the Gospels, and then preached 
on what he had read. Sons and daughters were 
filled with love for the spiritual life ; and also many 
female slaves, who did not suffer themselves to be 
moved by the threats or ill-treatment of their hea- 
then masters. 

there were always men who felt its vanity, and raised 
themselves to a belief in one Almighty God. Doubtless, 
this general belief without a more accurate and assured 
knowledge of the relation of God to men, without the 
doctrine of a Redeemer, was by no means enough to 
satisfy the religious and moral wants of men. There is 
a wide difference between a belief in a hidden God, dwell- 
ing in a light which no man can approach unto, whom 
no man hath seen, nor can see, and the knowledge of 
God, as the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the 
Father, hath declared him unto us. Yet that belief may 
serve as a preparation for this knowledge, as has fre- 
quently been the case. Thus, in the latter part of the 
fourth century, Cormac, a great Irish prince, after abdi- 
cating his government, and devoting himself in solitude 
to quiet meditation and religious contemplation, had at- 
tained to this faith, and to a conviction of the vanity of 
the idolatrous system of his Druidical priests, and no re- 
presentations or arts of the Druids could win him back 
to it. The definite way in which this is related, is a pre- 
sumption in favour of the truth of the story ; and, in- 
deed, the Christian monks and priests of later times could 
hardly have had any temptation to invent such a thing. 



PATRICK OF IRELAND. 181 

Patrick took the part of the servants who had 
suffered hard usage from their masters. When he 
found youths of the lower ranks, who seemed to 
him fitted for a higher calling, he provided for their 
education, and trained them to be teachers of the 
people.* He had from his youth, as we have seen, 
experienced the especial guidance of the Lord, and 

° TVe have shown in another volume how Christianity, 
although it might suffer for a while the outward con- 
tinuance of slavery, (contradictory as that institution 
was to that universal dignity of man which it brought 
to light,) nevertheless gradually brought about a total 
remodelling of this relation in spirit and character. So, 
also, in these times Christianity led to the recognition of 
the equal human dignity of those whom fate had placed 
in that relation to others as their lords, in which no man 
should ever stand to another, — of that common image of 
God, and the higher destiny arising from it, to accom- 
plish which in all, the Son of God appeared in His flesh, 
and gave His life. It was often the habit of the mission- 
aries to buy heathen slaves, especially boys, and edu- 
cate them as missionaries for their countrymen. Thus 
Gregory the Great caused Anglo-Saxon slaves to be 
bought by the administrators of the Church property in 
Gaul; and thus also did Amandus, bishop of Maastricht, 
preacher of the Gospel in the Netherlands in the seventh 
century, of whom it is related : " "When he met with cap- 
tives or slaves who had come across the sea, he baptized 
them, had them well educated, and after having given 
them their freedom, divided them among different 
churches ; and of many of these we have afterwards 
heard that they have become bishops, priests, or abbots." 
Bonitus, (Bonet,) bishop of Clermont in the seventh cen- 
tury, when he was governor of Provence, would sentence 
no one to slavery, but ransomed all whom he could find, 



182 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

his heart was penetrated by it. Now whilst he 
laboured in the fervour and the power of faith, he 
was able to produce effects on the rude minds of 
the Irish such as never could have been produced 
by ordinary human power. He saw himself, more- 
over, sustained by the peculiar direction of that God 
whose word he preached. Patrick speaks of it, 
not in spiritual pride, but full of the sense of his 
unworthiness and impotence, as well as of the con- 
sciousness of the grace working in and through 
him. 

After speaking in one of his letters of such mar- 
vels as God granted him to perform amongst the 
barbarous people, he added : " But I conjure all, 
let no one, on account of these or the like things, 
think to place me on an equality with the apostles 
and other perfect men, for I am an insignificant, 
sinful, and despicable man." And more marvellous 
still to him was the simple fact which filled his 

who had been sold into slavery, and restored them to 
their own people. 

It also contributed to place this class of men in a more 
favourable light amongst the Frankish nation ; that the 
bishops (often indeed moved by selfish interests) re- 
ceived people of this condition into the clergy. When, 
in the middle of the eighth century, Chrodegang, bishop 
of Metz, declared himself against the consecration of none 
but slaves to the priesthood, from bad motives, he added, 
to prevent a depreciation of people of that station, that 
" he would by no means exclude from the clerical office 
slaves of respectable character, since there is no respect 
of persons with God." 



PATRICK OF IRELAND. 183 

whole soul, that by him who, until God drew his 
soul to Himself by severe chastisement, had him- 
self cared so little about his own salvation, many 
thousands of the people, who had hitherto known 
nothing of the true God, should be brought to sal- 
ration. "Marvel," he says, "ye who fear God, 
small and great, and ye eloquent talkers, who know 
nothing of the Lord, inquire and acknowledge who 
it is that has awakened me, a simple man, from the 
midst of those who are accounted the wise, learned, 
and mighty, in word and in deed. For I, who was 
abandoned beyond many others in the world ; even 
I, in spite of all this, have been called by His Spirit, 
that in fear and trembling, yet faithfully and blame- 
lessly, I should serve the people to whom the love 
of Christ has led me. Unweariedly must I thank 
my God, who has kept me faithful in the day of 
temptation, so that I can this day trustfully offer 
my soul as a living sacrifice of thanksgiving to my 
Lord Christ, who has delivered me out of all my 
afflictions, so that I must also say, TTho am I, 
Lord, and what is my calling, that Thou hast so 
gloriously revealed to me Thy Godhead, that I can 
now constantly rejoice amongst the heathen, and 
glorify Thy name wherever I may be, not only in 
prosperity but also in adversity, so that whatever 
may befall me, good or evil, I can calmly receive 
it, and continually thank that God who has taught 
me to believe in Him as the only true God ?" 

Patrick endeavoured to avoid all appearance of 
se^kino: 4iis own o-ain or glory. A man who, ac- 



184 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

cording to the judgment of men, was not fitted to 
effect such great things, who from obscurity and 
poverty had been called to so high a place, and in 
whom, therefore, as is frequently the case, those 
who had formerly known him after the flesh would 
not recognise what the Spirit had accomplished, — 
such a man was obliged, with all the more circum- 
spection, to avoid giving any occasion to those who 
were disposed to declare a thing which they could 
neither measure nor comprehend by the common 
standard, altogether beyond flesh and blood . When 
many, full of love and gratitude to the teacher of 
salvation, their spiritual father, freely offered him 
gifts, and pious women offered their ornaments, 
Patrick, although the donors were at first offended 
at it, in order to avoid all evil report, declined 
everything. He himself gave presents to the hea- 
then chiefs, (one of whom once robbed him, threw 
him into chains, and kept him a captive fourteen 
days,) in order thereby to purchase peace for him- 
self and his Churches ; he ransomed many Christians 
from captivity ; and was himself prepared, as a 
gx>od shepherd, to lay down all, even to his life, for 
his sheep. In his confession of faith, which, after 
labouring for thirty years in this calling, he ad- 
dressed to his converts, he says: "That ye may 
rejoice in me, and I may ever rejoice in you in the 
Lord, I repent not what I have done, and even now 
it is not enough for me. I shall go further, and 
sacrifice much more. The Lord is mighty to eon- 
firm me yet more, that I may yield up my life for 



PATRICK OF IRELAND. 185 

your souls. I call God to witness in my soul, that 
I have not written this to seek glory from you. 
The glory which is not seen, but believed on in the 
heart, is enough for me. Faithful is that God who 
hath promised, and he lieth not. But already in 
this world I behold myself exalted above measure 
by the Lord. I know very well that poverty and 
hardship suit me better than wealth and ease. Yea, 
even the Lord Christ became poor for our sakes. 
Daily have I expected to be seized, carried into 
captivity, or slain. But I fear none of these things, 
because of the promises of heaven ; for I have cast 
myself into the arms of the Almighty God, who 
reigns everywhere, as it is said in the Psalm 
(Psa. lv, 23), ' Cast thy burden upon the Lord, 
and He shall sustain thee.'* Xow I commend my 
soul to my faithful God, whom in my insignificance 
I serve as His messenger. For since with Him 
there is no respect of persons, and since He has 
chosen me for this calling, that I, as one of the 
least of His people, should serve Him, what shall 
I render unto the Lord for all His benefits ? What 

° Compare with this the beautiful words of Levinius, 
(preacher of the Gospel in Brabant in the seventh cen- 
tury, who died as a martyr :) " Brabant is thirsting for 
my death. How have I sinned against thee, in bringing 
thee the tidings of peace ? It is peace that I bring thee ; 
why dost thou threaten me with war ? But thy rage 
brings me a glorious victory — will obtain for me the 
martyr's crown. I know in whom I have believed, and 
my hope shall not be ashamed. God is the surety. Who 
can doubt V 9 



186 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

shall I say or promise unto my Lord ? For I can 
do nothing, unless He himself give it me ! But 
He trieth the hearts and reins, and He knoweth 
how greatly I long that He may give me to drink 
of the eup of His sufferings, as He has granted to 
others who love Him. I pray God that he may 
give me perseverance, and enable me to bear a 
faithful witness until my departure. And if I have 
striven after anything good for my God's sake, 
whom I love, I beseech Him that I, with those my 
new converts who have fallen into captivity, may 
shed my blood for His Name's sake, even though 
I should never be buried, even though my body 
should be torn in pieces by wild beasts. I believe 
firmly if this should befall me, I should gain my 
body as well as my soul ; for, undoubtedly, in that 
day, we shall arise and shine like the sun, that is, 
in the glory of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who is 
the Son of the living God, as joint heirs with Christ, 
renewed in His image ; for by Him, through Him, 
and with Him, shall we reign. That sun which we 
see, rises daily for us, by God's command ; but it 
will never reign, and its brightness will not last for- 
ever. All those also who worship it will (unhappy 
ones !) draw down punishment on themselves. But 
we pray in faith to Christ, the true Sun, that will 
never set, and he also who doeth His will shall 
never set, but shall live forever, as Christ lives for- 
ever, and reigns with God, the Almighty Father, 
and the Holy Spirit, from everlasting to everlast- 
ing." 



COLUMBAN. 187 

Patrick would gladly, after the absence and la- 
bours of many years, have once more visited bis 
relations and bis old friends in bis native Britain 
and in Gaul, but be sacrificed bis inclination to tbe 
higher calling. " I would gladly," he says, "have 
journeyed to my fatherland and my parents, and 
also once more have visited my brethren in Gaul, 
that I might have seen again the countenances of 
the saints of my Lord ; God knows I longed for it 
much, but I am restrained by the Spirit, who wit- 
nesseth to me, that if I do this, He will hold me 
guilty, and I fear lest the work I have commenced 
should fall to the ground." 



COLUMBAN. 

The wild districts of Ireland were occupied with 
convents, after the example of Patrick, and culti- 
vated by the hard labour of the monks. The Irish 
convents were distinguished by their strict Chris- 
tian discipline, their diligence and their zeal in the 
study of the Scriptures, and of science in general, 
as far as they had the means of acquiring it, Irish 
monks brought learning from Britain and Gaul, 
they treasured up this learning and elaborated it 
in the solitude of the convent, and they are said 
to have brought back these germs of science, to- 
gether with a living Christianity, to those regions 
from which they had first received them, but 



188 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

where they had been crushed by the spread of 
barbarism. 

The most distinguished amongst the Irish con- 
vents was Bankor, founded by abbot Comgall, who 
had three thousand monks under his control ; it 
was especially a training school for missionaries 
and teachers of the rude tribes around. From 
this school issued, in the latter part of the sixth 
century, an Irishman, named Columban. When 
he had reached the age of thirty years, he felt 
himself constrained to go forth to preach the Gos- 
pel, and introduce Christian education amongst the 
rude tribes. He himself says, in a letter written 
after the persecutions in France, " It was my wish 
to visit the heathen tribes, and to proclaim to them 
the Gospel." 

His scholar and biographer, Jonas, expresses 
this thus : " He began to long for a pilgrim life, 
mindful of that command of the Lord, ' Depart 
from thy country, and thy kindred, and thy father's 
house, and go into the land that I shall show thee/ 
God bestowed on father Columban that fervour of 
heart, that longing enkindled by the fire of the 
Lord, of which He saith, ' I am come to enkindle 
a fire upon earth/ Columban himself says of this 
holy fire of love, ' that God,— since, petty as I 
am, I am his servant, — that God would so arouse 
me out of the sleep of sloth, that he would deign 
so to enkindle in me the fire of Divine love, that 
this Divine flame may constantly burn in me ! O 
that I had the fuel with which perpetually to feed 



COLUMBAN. 189 

that fire, that it might never more be extinguished, 
but might constantly increase in me ! Lord, 
give me, I beseech thee, in the name of Jesus 
Christ thy Son, my God, that love which can never 
cease ; that my lamp may be kindled, and may not 
be extinguished ; that it may burn in me, and shine 
to others. And thou, Christ, our dearest Saviour, 
do thou thyself kindle our lamps, that they may 
shine evermore in thy temple, that they may re- 
ceive inextinguishable light from thee the inextin- 
guishable light, that our darkness mav be enlio-ht- 
ened, whilst the darkness of the world flies from 
us. My Jesus, I beseech thee to give thy light 
to my lamp, that in its light may be manifested to 
me that Holy of Holies in which thou, the eternal 
Priest, dost dwell, that I may continually contem- 
plate thee only, long for thee, gaze on thee, and 
yearn for thee in love. Let it be thy concern, 
Saviour full of love, to show thyself to us who 
knock, that we may perceive thee, love thee alone, 
think only of thee day and. night, that thy love 
may possess our whole souls, and this so great 
love may never more be extinguished by the 
many waters of this earth, as it is written that 
many waters cannot quench love." (Canticles 
viii, 7.) 

After having obtained permission from the abbot, 
Columban repaired, in the year 590, to France, 
with twelve youths, who were being trained under 
his direction for the clerical life. Barbarism was 
fast spreading at that time in France, in conse- 



190 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

quence of constant war, political disturbances, and 
the carelessness of certain worldly-minded bishops ; 
and among the convents in particular, in conse- 
quence of many of them having been granted by 
the princes to laymen of rank, great corruption 
had crept in. So much the more respect must 
Columban have obtained amongst the uncivilized 
and ignorant crowd by his strict piety and his 
learning. He was entreated to settle in the king- 
dom of Burgundy, and might have obtained a con- 
vent, where he could have lived in comfortable re- 
pose and great esteem with his friends. But he 
declared that he sought not earthly wealth, but 
felt himself constrained to follow the words of 
Christ : " Whosoever will follow Me, let him deny 
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow 
Me." He therefore went to a wild and desolate 
place amongst the Vosges mountains, and there 
selected for his abode the ruins of an old castle 
called Anegray. As the monks were compelled 
themselves first to bring the land into cultivation, 
they often suffered want ; but even in such circum- 
stances, when no human aid appeared, Columban 
could never be made to waver in his reliance on 
God, and this could not be brought to shame. 
Once the monks had nothing left to eat but the 
bark of trees, and herbs ; and their need pressed 
all the more sorely on them, because one of their 
number was sick, and they were thus prevented 
from doing anything for him. They had passed 
three days in prayer that their sick brother might 



COLUMBAN. 191 

be relieved, when they saw a man, "whose sacks 
were laden with provisions, stop before the gate 
of the convent. He told them he had felt con- 
strained by a sadden impulse to assist according 
to his means those who from love to Christ suffered 
such great need in the wilderness. At another 
time they had already suffered from a similar 
scarcity during nine days, when the heart of an- 
other abbot was moved to send them provisions. 
Once when a priest visited them, and seemed as- 
tonished that Columban could be so tranquil when 
he had so little corn in his granary, Columban 
answered : "If the people faithfully serve their 
Creator, they shall suffer no want, as it is written 
in the P.- aim, ' I have never seen the righteous 
forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.' (Psa. 
xxxvii, 25.) He who could satisfy five thousand 
with five loaves, can also easily fill our granary 
with meal." 

Columban united great outward power and ac- 
tivity with a heart disposed to religious contempla- 
tion and rejoicing in inward quiet ; and the fact 
that both these things could be so blended in liim, 
as in many other pious men of that age, is a proof 
of their Christian simplicity, and of a mind firmly 
resting on God. He frequently went deep into 
the forest, with his Bible on his shoulder, read as 
he went, and meditated on what he read, or seated 
himself on a hollow trunk with the Bible in his 
hand, On Sundays and other feast days, he re- 
tired into caves or other lonely places, and gave 



192 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

himself up entirely to prayer and meditation on 
Divine things. 

The respect felt for Columban caused men of 
all classes to repair to him and entrust themselves 
to his guidance, or commit their sons to his train- 
ing. The number of the monks became so large 
that one convent would no longer suffice, and two 
others were founded, both in solitary places, — one 
at Luxen, and one at Fontaines. 

Columban regarded self-denial, and the entire 
yielding up of the will to God, as the highest ob- 
ject, and to effect this in those who were committed 
to his guidance was the aim of all his conventual 
arrangements. In his instructions to his monks, 
he says many excellent things about this highest 
aim of self-ennobling, this main point in Christian 
sanctification, this "one thing needful.' 7 "He 
tramples on the world who overcomes himself; 
no one who spares himself can hate the world. 
In our own souls alone do Ave hate or love the 
world." And in another instruction: "We must 
willingly resign for Christ's sake, all that we love 
besides Christ. Firstly, if it is necessary, our 
natural life must be yielded up to the martyr's 
death for Christ. Or, if the opportunity of such 
blessedness fails, the crucifixion of the will must 
not be lacking, so that those who thus live, may 
no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who 
died for them. Let us therefore live unto Him, 
who although He died for us is our life ; let us die 
to ourselves, in order to live unto Christ. For we 



COLUMBAX. 193 

cannot live unto Him, if we do not first die to our- 
selves, that is, to our own will. Let us be Christ's, 
and not our own ; we are dearly bought, — dearly 
bought indeed, — for the Master gave himself for 
the servant, the King for the subject, God for 
man. What shall we return for this, that the 
Creator of the universe has died for us sinners, 
for us His creatures ? Dost thou not think that 
thou shouldst also die to sin ? Surely thou 
shouldst. Let us therefore die, let us die for 
Him who is the Life, since the Life has died for 
us, that we may be able to say with Paul, ' I live, 
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' who hath died 
for me ; this is the voice of God's people. Xo 
man can die to himself, if Christ does not first live 
in him. Live in Christ, that Christ may live in 
thee. \Vith violence must we now take the kino-- 
dom of heaven, for we are not only opposed by 
our adversaries, but yet more fiercely by ourselves. 
It is a great misery when a man injures himself 
and does not feel it. If thou hast overcome thy- 
self, thou hast overcome all." 

Although the genuine spirit of Christian self- 
denial — that self-denial which is linked with love — 
is here evidenced, nevertheless this spirit did not 
display itself unmixedly in the conventual rules 
which Columban instituted. Even though love 
ruled in his heart, and he sought to train his monks 
to a free love of the children of God, they were 
subjected to a strict legal discipline. They were 

to exercise self-denial in the entire annihilation of 
13 



194 MEMORIALS. OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

their own will, and in the servile dependence on 
the will of another human being, who was repre- 
sented to them as the absolute instrument of the 
Lord for their guidance. They were, as passive 
(will-less) instruments, to serve their superiors, in 
whom they were to see the Lord, who guided them 
through them. This was the externalizing spirit 
which prevailed in every century, until, by means 
of the Reformation, the sign was given for the re- 
storation of that freedom which Christ has pur- 
chased for his own. True humility conducts itself 
with regard to our relation with God in a way 
which is applicable to no relation with any crea- 
ture whatsoever. He who abases himself before 
God, for that very reason can abase himself to no 
human being, although ready to serve every man 
according to his degree in free love. He who 
bows his knee to God, on that very account bows 
it to no man. The spirit of true freedom is 
grounded in true humility, — as the Apostle says, 
" Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the ser- 
vants of men." But according to the false inter- 
pretation of the materializing spirit, instead of sub- 
jecting our own will with true inward self-denial 
to God, and suffering ourselves in voluntary sub- 
mission to be guided by his Spirit, we are to sub- 
ject our will to that of another man, by whom we 
are to be guided in all things — the very oppo- 
site of that which the Apostle indicated in these 
words. 

Columban, in his monastic rules, encourages his 



COLUMBAN. 195 

monks by the assurance that by this blind obedi- 
ence they would attain all the more repose and 
security, since they would thus be freed from all 
responsibility about the things which they did at 
the command of another, and since the miilt would 
fall on the head of him from whom, according to 
his calling, they had received the command which 
they, according to their calling, had only to obey. 
This, indeed, natters the indolence of men, who 
would gladly avoid the personal conflict and the 
personal trial to which they are called. But this 
is contrary to the Divine scheme of education for 
men ; since man, having arrived at a mature age, is 
to be enabled by Christianity to walk in the light 
of his God, freely to test everything by the word 
of God with the aid of an enlightened reason, and 
to regulate his actions without any outward re- 
straint, by the law written in his regenerate heart 
by the Spirit. That which Columban sets before 
his monks as their object, — " that man should ever 
be dependent on the mouth of another," — is con- 
trary to the spirit and essence of Christianity, 
which teaches, that men should learn to depend 
only on that which proceedeth out of the mouth 
of God. 

It was always a perilous thing to seek to break 
the will of man by the stern discipline which mo- 
nasticism employed ; for this will can only be truly 
subjected and remoulded by the inward power of 
Divine love, through which, renouncing itself in 
its own personality, it regains itself in a higher 



196 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, 

sphere as the illuminated organ of the Divine will. 
In monastic education, that yearning for free indi- 
vidual development innate in a reasonable being 
created in God's image, that mighty consciousness 
which stirs in the breast of youth, of being created 
in God's image and to His glory, is frequently con- 
founded with the sinful and selfish efforts which do 
indeed too easily attach themselves to it. The de- 
spotic restraint, which did not know how to dis- 
criminate between the one and the other, whilst it 
repressed all free individual development, could 
only produce a stunted existence. That self-will, 
which is not to be quelled by human power, would 
either, incited by outward pressure to a more ob- 
stinate resistance, produce a scornful pride; or, h/* 
self-will was broken, all fresh individual life perished 
with it, and nothing remained but a dull, slavish 
character, incapable of all loftier things ; or other- 
wise the result was such a distortion, that with the 
slavish character was united pride, disguising itself 
in the likeness, of humility, that "voluntary hu- 
mility" of which Paul speaks, Colossians ii, 23. 

What Anselm of Canterbury said towards the 
close of the eleventh century, against this severe 
monastic discipline, is excellent. An abbot com- 
plained to him, in -the course of conversation, of the 
incorrigible youths under his charge, who were not 
to be improved by any amount of beating. An- 
selm replied, " You never cease beating these boys, 
— what sort of men then do they make when they 
grow up ?" " Stupid, brutish men," answered the 



COLUMBAN. 197 

abbot. " A good token of your skill in education/' 
observed Anselm, " that you educate men to be 
brutes." The abbot replied, "Is that our fault? 
"We seek by all possible means to compel them to 
be better, and we get nothing out of it." 

" You compel them ?" answered Anselm : " tell 
me, my dear abbot, if you were to plant a tree in 
your garden, and inclose it tightly on all sides, so 
that it could not shoot forth a branch on any side, 
and after some years were to set it free, what kind 
of a plant would it have become ? Doubtless, a 
useless tree, with crooked, intertwisted branches. 
And whose fault would it be but yours, for having 
unduly restrained its growth ?" 

In order, however, to judge Colnmban justly, 
we must not forget in what circumstances he lived, 
what men he had to mould, and what difficulties to 
contend with. Bands of rude men had to be 
governed, rescued from the prevailino- barbarism 
and lawlessness, and trained to industry, endurance 
of difficulties, and privations of all sorts, and as the 
highest aim, to be led to a truly spiritual life, a life 
of self-renunciation and consecration to God. He 
himself says in a letter, "We must attain to the 
city of God in the right way, by mortification of 
the flesh, contrition of heart, bodily labour, and 
humiliation of spirit, by our own efforts, (doing 
in this only what it is our duty to do, not as 
if we could merit anything,) and what is above 
all, by the grace of Christ, by faith, and hope, and 
love." 



198 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

In the monastic rules of Columban it is written : 
" Let the monk live in the convent under the con- 
trol of a father, and in fellowship with many, that 
from the one he may learn humility, from the others 
patience, — from the one silent obedience, from the 
others gentleness ; let him not do his own will — let 
him eat what is commanded him, let him take as 
much as he is given, let him accomplish his daily 
task. Let him retire weary to his bed, let him 
sleep slightly, and before he has slept out his sleep, 
let him be compelled to arise. Let him fear the 
superior of the convent as a master, and love him 
as a father." 

In spite of all this stern discipline, there was a 
spirit of fatherly love about the abbot, which, as 
w T e see from his life, knit many hearts to him. But 
he always kept it in view, so to train the monks, 
that this precise order should not be to them any- 
thing dead and mechanical, or become an intolera- 
ble burden, but that it should grow natural to 
them, that everything should be made easy by the 
spirit of love and self-sacrifice. " If the monks 
learn the lowliness of Christ, the yoke will become 
easy to them, and the burden light. Lowliness of 
heart is the rest of a soul wearied out by conflict 
with its corrupt inclinations, and by its inward suf- 
ferings ; this is its only refuge from such manifold 
evils, and the more it withdraws to this contempla- 
tion from restless distraction amongst vain and ex- 
ternal things, the more it rests, and is inwardly re- 
freshed, so that the bitter becomes sweet, and what 



COLUMBAX. 199 

was formerly too hard and difficult to be borne, be- 
comes smooth and easy."' 

Columban's instructions to the monks show an 
endeavour to bring Divine things home to their 
hearts ; and when we see how easily those who 
have to extract their food from the soil by hard 
daily labour, forget, beneath the weight of daily 
heavy toil and earthly cares, the higher concerns 
of the spirit and the heart, — cleaving to the dust, 
so much the more praiseworthy does that man ap- 
pear, who. in the very midst of the conflict with 
savage nature, endeavoured by the power of Chris- 
tianity to train men to make the highest interests of 
the inner man the chief concerns for themselves and 
others ; nay, who even sought to use this daily 
conflict as an exercise of self-denial, of devotion to 
God. and unconditional trust in Him. Columban 
once saw, after the foundation of the abbey of Fon- 
taines, sixty men laboriously loosening the soil 
with their mattocks, to prepare it for the future 
crop, whilst a very small stock of provisions re- 
mained in the magazine of the convent to satisfy 
their hunger and thirst during such hard labour. 
How much does this imply ! Here we see the 
power of that faith which could remove mountains. 
Others would have lost all heart and strength 
amidst such great difficulties and with such dark 
prospects, but Columban's faith inspired courage 
and strength in those under his control. The 
monks were to prove that faith multiplies what we 
have, and can create means when they fail, because 



200 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, 

it fills men's hearts with courage, strength, and 
gladness ; just as a distrustful despondency dimin- 
ishes the gifts of God, by enfeebling our strength, 
and makes earthly want doubly felt, because it 
abandons the soul altogether to its sufferings, 
crushes it to the earth, and adds anxiety for the 
future to the privations of the moment. 

Some passages from the instructions of Colum- 
ban to his monks may exhibit to us his profoundly 
Christian spirit, and his endeavour to awaken the 
like in them. Whilst he condemns idle subtilties 
about the Trinity, he says : " Who can speak of 
the essence of God — how He is everywhere present 
and invisible, or how He fills heaven and earth and 
all creatures, according to those words, ' Am I not 
He who filleth heaven and earth,' Jer. xxii, 24. 
The universe is full of the Spirit of the Lord ; 
" heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool." 
Thus God is everywhere present in all His infinity, 
everywhere He is quite near us, according to His 
own testimony concerning himself. " Am I a God 
that is near, saith the Lord, and not a God afar 
off?" We do not therefore seek God as one who 
is far off from us, since we can draw nigh to Him 
in our own souls ; for He dwells in us as the soul 
in the body, if we are not dead in the service of 
sin. If we are fit to receive Him, then we are 
made truly living by Him, as His living members. 
" In Him," says the Apostle, " we live, and move, 
and have our being." Who can search out the 
Highest in this His unutterable and incomprehensi- 



COLUMBAX. 201 

ble essence? Who can fathom the depths of the 
Godhead ? Who can boast that he comprehends 
the infinite God, who fills and embraces all things, 
who penetrates all things, and is sublime above 
all? For no man has seen how He exists. Let 
no one then venture to search into the unsearcha- 
ble essence of God ; let us only believe simply, yet 
firmly, that God is and will be that which He has 
been, because He is the unchangeable God. God 
is apprehended by the pious faith of a pure heart, 
but not by an impure heart and vain discourse. If 
thou wilt dare to search out the Unutterable with 
thy prying subtilties, wisdom will remain further 
from thee than she was, (Eccles. vii, 24:) but if, on 
the other hand, thou clingest to Him by faith, wis- 
dom will stand at thy door. Therefore should we 
beseech the omnipresent, invisible God himself, that 
the fear which is linked with faith and love may 
abide in us ; for this fear of God, blended with love, 
makes us wise on all occasions : and piety teaches 
us to be silent about the Unutterable. " Of the 
happiness of him who has vital Christianity, he 
says, " Who indeed can be happier than the man 
whose death is life, whose life is Christ, whose re- 
ward is the Saviour, to whom the heavens bow 
down, to whom paradise is open, for whom hell is 
closed, whose Father is God, whose servants are 
the angels ?" In his eighth instruction : "It be- 
hoves pilgrims to hasten to their home. They have 
cares as long as they are on their pilgrimage, but in 
their fatherland they have rest. Let us, therefore, 



202 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

who are on our pilgrimage, hasten towards our 
fatherland, for our whole life is as a day's jour- 
ney. The first thing for us is, not to set our 
affections on things below, but on things above: 
to desire only, to meditate only on the things 
which are above ; to seek our fatherland there 
only where our Father is. Here on earth, then, 
we have no fatherland, because our Father is in 
heaven." 

Of love as the soul of the Christian life he says : 
" What has the law of God prescribed more care- 
fully, more frequently, than love? And yet you 
seldom find any one who really loves. What have 
we to say in excuse ? Can we say, it is something 
painful and hard ? Love is no labour ; it is, on the 
contrary, a sweet, and wholesome, and healing thing 
to the heart. Unless the soul is diseased within, 
its health is love. He who fulfilleth the law with 
the zeal of love hath eternal life. As John says, 
' We know that we have passed from death unto 
life because we love the brethren. He who loveth 
not his brother abideth in death. He who hateth 
his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no 
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him/ We 
must, therefore, do nothing but love, or we have 
nothing to expect but punishment. May our gra- 
cious Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, our God, the 
Creator of peace and love, inspire us with this love, 
which is the fulfilling of the law I" 

In his little poems, also containing exhortations 
and lessons to his disciples and friends, Columban 



COLUMBAN. 203 

expresses his deep love to Christ. " Let no one," 
he says in them, " live unto himself, but every- 
where let each of us live unto Christ. If thou truly 
lovest Christ, seek not thine own, but Christ's glory. 
Love not thyself nor the world, but Christ alone." 
Columban requires from the true monk that he 
should unite lowliness and long-suffering with stead- 
fastness and strength in the conflict for truth and 
justice, against the high and mighty of this world ; 
that he should be ready to contend for essential 
things ; that he should, indeed, be lowly with those 
of low degree, but that he should resist the proud ; 
that he should be brave for the truth ; that he 
should be yielding and obliging to the good, but 
invincible in conflict with the wicked. It was in 
this spirit that Columban himself acted in contend- 
ing for Christian freedom and Christian morality. 
By his zeal for strict morality, and against the bar- 
barism which had crept into the Frankish churches, 
and by his frankness, he necessarily made enemies 
of many powerful men both amongst the clergy 
and laity, and these gladly availed themselves of an 
opportunity to rid themselves of so obnoxious a 
man. Columban had brought with him from the 
Irish Church many peculiar arrangements as to 
Divine sendee, which differed from the customs of 
the Roman Church, then universally introduced 
into those districts. As his convents formed a little 
complete whole in themselves, in the midst of the 
wild forests, he chose to follow the customs of his 
fathers, and would not submit himself to the pre- 



204 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

valent ecclesiastical customs. He might, indeed, 
have been more yielding in trivial outward things, 
in order to win the more in things essential ; but it 
was his purpose to oppose himself to an usurping 
ecclesiastical authority, which did not recognise the 
rights of Christian freedom, and which sought by its 
ordinances to compel uniformity in external things. 
His enemies gladly availed themselves of this de- 
parture of his from the dominant ecclesiastical cus- 
toms, to annoy him. Columban by no means 
wished to enforce the ritual observances which he 
had brought with him from Ireland on all men, 
although he himself gave them the prefer- 
ence ; he merely desired that liberty might be 
allowed him to act in his own way in his con- 
vents. 

With Christian candour, submitting to no human 
authority in matters of religion, he wrote to Gregory 
the Great, bishop of Rome. He entreated him not 
to suffer himself to be fettered by the opinions of 
former bishops of Rome, but freely to test both 
sides, and to adopt whichever he approved. "In 
such matters,' ' he wrote, " you must not abandon 
yourself to your humility, or consult the dignity of 
persons, which often deceives. A living dog is 
perhaps better in such inquiries than a dead lion. 
(Eccles. ix, 4.) The living saint can amend what was 
not amended by a greater saint who is dead." He 
meant that, in this case, where free inquiry into the 
truth was concerned, Gregory ought not to suffer 
humility to deter him from subjecting to further 



COLUMBAN. 205 

tests what had been ordained by his predecessors. 
Later he wrote to Boniface IV., bishop of Rome, 
that " as they were knit together in the unity of the 
faith, as they both believed with the heart, and 
confessed with the mouth, one Father in heaven, 
of whom are all things, and one Saviour, the Son 
of God, by whom are all things, and one Holy 
Spirit in whom are all things, he trusted it would 
be permitted him and his people, without disturb- 
ing the peace of the Church, to retain then* customs, 
as once Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and Anicetus, 
bishop of Rome, had parted without any scandal 
to the faith, and in undisturbed love, though each 
adhering to the customs of his ancestors/' When 
in the year 602, a French synod was held to de- 
liberate on this subject, Columban addressed to this 
episcopal assembly a letter full of zeal for the 
welfare of the Church. As, partly in consequence 
of the political disturbances in the Frankish empire, 
and partly of the carelessness of the bishops who 
had entangled themselves too much with the affairs 
of this life, the wholesome institution of Provincial 
Synods had long been neglected, Columban thanked 
God that these divisions had called forth such a 
synod, and he prayed God to grant that they might 
occupy themselves on this occasion with more im- 
portant things — with things touching on faith and 
life. He represented to them, with all respect, the 
great truth, that if they did not show by their lives 
that they had heard the words of the True Shep- 
herd, and follow Him, they could not expect that 



206 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

His words, which they announced as mere hirelings, 
would obtain obedience. 

He said justly, (a word well to be remembered 
in all divisions,) that if all the children of God were 
only first united by the fellowship of love and the 
unity of evangelical convictions, all strife would 
easily be adjusted. " Difference of manners and 
customs has, indeed, been very injurious to the 
peace of the Church ; but if we only hasten to ex- 
tract the poison of pride, envy, and the pursuit of 
vain glory, by the exercise of true humility, accord- 
ing to the teaching and example of our Lord, who 
says, ' Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in 
heart,' as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, we 
shall mutually love one another with our whole 
heart; for the lowly cannot strive, since the truth 
will soon be recognised by those who, with the 
same purpose and the same desire to know the 
truth, seek what is best — where only error is van- 
quished, and no man glories in himself, but in the 
Lord." He concludes the letter with these words : 
" Since we should love one another with love un- 
feigned, let us diligently consider the command- 
ments of our Lord Jesus Christ, and if we under- 
stand them, strive to fulfil them, in order that, 
through His teaching, the whole Church, in a glow 
of holy zeal, may set her affections on things above. 
May His unmerited grace grant us this — to fly the 
world and love Him alone, to seek Him with the 
Father and the Holy Ghost! For the rest, 
fathers ! pray ye for us, as we, insignificant as we 



COLUMBAX. 207 

are, pray for you, and regard us not as strangers ; 
for we are members of one body, be we Gauls, 
Britons, Irishmen, or of any nation whatsoever. 
Thus may we all from all nations rejoice in the 
faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and 
hasten to become a perfect man, after the measure 
of the stature of the fulness of Christ ; in which 
effort may we mutually help one another, care for 
one another, pray for one another, and triumph and 
rejoice together!" 

An attack from another quarter had important 
results for Columban. He was held in hig'h hon- 
our by Theodoric II., king of Burgundy, in which 
country his abbeys lay. He availed himself of this 
to reprove the king for his voluptuous life, and to 
exhort him to amendment of conduct. But his in- 
fluence on this side interfered with the policy of 
Brunehild, the powerful grandmother of the prince, 
and she, in concert with the nobles and prelates, to 
whom Colitmban's presence had long been burden- 
some, plotted to banish him. It was Columban's 
way not to avoid the machinations which were di- 
rected against him. True to his axiom, "to be bold 
in the cause of truth, invincible by the wicked,' 7 he 
opposed an unyielding firmness to all these plots. 
At length, after twenty-five years of activity, he 
was driven out of the country, A. D. 610. It was 
at first decreed that he should be conveyed to Ire- 
land, but circumstances hindered the execution of 
this decree. On his journey through France, he 
experienced many consolatory proofs that God was 



208 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

with him. When he had arrived with his escort at 
the city of Nantes, and was lingering in contempla- 
tion in his cell, a beggar came to the window. 
Columban caused the last measure of meal in his 
stock to be given to the hungry man. He knew 
that he and his people would in consequence be 
compelled to endure want during the two following 
days, yet he remained joyful in faith and hope 
about it, when suddenly some one knocked at the 
door. It was the servant of a pious lady in the 
city, who brought from her an abundant stock of 
corn and wine. From Nantes he wrote a letter 
full of fatherly love to the monks whom he had 
left behind in France, exhorting them to concord 
and humility. " It were better," he wrote to them, 
"that ye should not dwell together than that ye 
should not desire and avoid the same things." He 
supposes God to say to the proud self-righteous 
soul : " As thou hast suffered thyself to be misled 
by thy pride and imagined holiness, now come down 
and be reckoned, amongst sinners ; for what is done 
with pride is of no value in My sight." Of a monk 
to whom he was peculiarly attached, called Waldo- 
lin, he writes, on the other hand : " May God bless 
him, may he be lowly ! and embrace him for me, as 
I, in my haste, could not." 

He then went to Switzerland, to Zug and Brienz, 

where he laboured many years for the conversion 

of the Suevi and Alenianni.* Then he repaired to 

Italy, and founded in the neighbourhood of the 

See in the life of Gallus. 



COLUMBAN. 209 

Apennines the celebrated abbey of Bobio, where 
he found rest in the last years of his life. 

To the last he was active in endeavouring to heal 
a schism which had endured many years in Italy. 
The emperor Justinian, who by his unwise and des- 
potic interference with ecclesiastical affairs, and by 
his darling project of uniting the emperor with the 
theologian, instead of occupying himself only with 
the faithful accomplishment of his duties as a ruler, 
had produced such serious divisions in the Greek 
Church, had also suffered himself to be moved by 
the rancour of a theological party at the court, pub- 
licly to anathematize the memory of three great 
Syrian doctors, (Theodoras, Theodoret, and Ibas ;) 
and the weak and indecisive Roman bishop Vigilius 
had at length consented to join in this foolish 
undertaking of the emperor. As the later Roman 
bishops followed the decision of their predecessor, 
the consequence was a schism in Italy, many im- 
portant Churches (in Istria and the Venetian terri- 
tory) refusing to yield to this decision. Many ac- 
cusations were thereby occasioned against the or- 
thodoxy of the Roman Church. Columban there- 
fore wrote a bold though respectful letter to Pope 
Boniface IV., in which he requested him to institute 
an unprejudiced inquiry into this matter, and en- 
treated him to seek the restoration of the peace of 
the Church. " Watch," he wrote to the Pope, 
cc first over the faith, then to encourage the works 
of faith, and to eradicate vice ; for your watchful- 
ness will be the salvation, as your neglect will be 
14 



210 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

the destruction of many. "We do not regard per- 
sons, but truth. Since you, in consequence of the 
dignity of your Church, have great honour, you 
should use great diligence in order not to lose your 
dignity by any error ; for power will remain with 
you as long as you remain on the right side. He 
is a true bearer of the keys of the kingdom of hea- 
ven, who by true knowledge opens it to the worthy 
and closes it against the unworthy. If he does the 
contrary, he can neither open nor shut. Since, 
therefore, you, perhaps with a degree of pride, 
claim for }^ourself a higher dignity and power with 
regard to Divine things, you should know that your 
power will be so much the less with the Lord, the 
more you think of it in your own heart ; for unity 
of faith throughout the world has also brought forth 
unity of spiritual power, so that everywhere truth 
must be allowed a free access to all men, whilst 
error must be equally denied it. The confession of 
the truth obtained his privileges for our common 
father Peter." Then follows the beautiful exhorta- 
tion, applicable to so many divisions, which arise 
from the estimation of minor differences higher than 
unity in the essentials of the faith, and thus rend 
the bond of love. "-Therefore, beloved, return 
quickly to concord, and do not recur to old strifes, 
but rather be silent, and consign them to eternal 
oblivion. If anything is doubtful, leave it to the 
decision of God. But about what is evident — what 
is open to the judgment of men, judge ye without 
respect of persons, Receive ye one another, that 



GALLUS OF SWITZERLAND. 211 

there may be joy in heaven over your peace and 
union. I know not how a Christian can strive with 
Christians about the faith. "What the orthodox 
Christian, who praises the Lord in the right way, 
says, another will confirm with his Amen, since 
both believe and love the same thing." 

Columban died in his seventy- second year, or 
perhaps older, after having, in an active life, full 
of manifold labours, scattered the seeds of Chris- 
tian knowledge in France, Switzerland, and Italy ; 
and by the disciples whom he left behind his la- 
bours were continued in the subsequent ages. 



GALLUS, APOSTLE OF SWITZERLAND. 

Amongst the disciples whom Columban brought 
with him from Ireland to France, one of the most 
distinguished was Gallus. He was of a noble Irish 
family, and was early intrusted by his pious parents 
to Columban, to be trained for the service of the 
kingdom of God. Columban, who, as we observed 
above, was a zealous student of the Scriptures, had 
implanted a deep love for them in the youth's breast. 
He spoke from the Scriptures with simplicity and 
affection, pressing the words home to men's hearts. 
When Columban with his friends met with a hos- 
pitable reception from pious men, and after having 
laid aside his travelling clothes, wished to have 
something read aloud out of the Scriptures, it was 
his favourite pupil Gallus who was desired to do it, 



212 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

and who, after reading, had to unfold the meaning 
of the passage. When they settled near the ruins 
of the old castle of Brienz, they stumbled on an 
old fallen chapel, which they resolved to consecrate 
to the Christian worship, and around which they 
built their cells. But in this chapel they found 
three gilded idols, which the heathen natives re- 
vered as guardian deities. As Gallus, during his 
residence in the Frankish empire, had made him- 
self well acquainted with the German language, 
Columban desired him to preach the Gospel to the 
multitudes who flocked together to see the solemn 
consecration. It is, indeed, a true saying of Lu- 
ther's : " It is God's work alone to banish idols 
from the hearts of men. What is done from with- 
out is mere puppet-play. If some of their idols are 
taken from men, they will make themselves others 
yet worse. But if the preaching of Divine grace 
prepare the way to the heart, it may be an addi- 
tional help if the sensible image to which the idola- 
trous worship attaches itself, is also removed from 
the eyes." Thus Gallus may have confirmed the 
impression produced by his sermon, by courage- 
ously dashing the idols in pieces, as he did before 
the eyes of the wild heathen multitude, and may 
thus have proved to them by ocular demonstration, 
the nothingness and powerlessness of their idols. 

The monks then proceeded to busy themselves 
in cultivating their garden, and planting fruit-trees. 
Gallus wove nets, and carried on a fishery. He was 
so successful in this, that he not only provided the 



GALLUS OF SWITZERLAND. 213 

rest of tlie monks with fish, but also was able to 
entertain strangers, and often to make presents to 
the people.* When they were driven out of that 
neighbourhood, and Abbot Columban turned his 
steps to Italy, G-allus was prevented by sickness 
from followino- him : and this circumstance was 
productive of much blessing to the tribes of that 
district ; since, but for this illness, Gallus would 
never have become what he did for the country. 
Gallus repaired with his fishing nets to a priest 
called Willimar, who lived in an old castle, and 
who had once already entertained him with the 
abbot Columban, and pointed out a residence 
for them. When, by his affectionate care, Gallus 
had recovered, he wished to find a place in the 
wilderness to build in. With this object, he ad- 
dressed himself to the deacon Hillibald, whose 
business it was to provide his convent with fish and 
game, and who had therefore often traversed the 

° It is related also of bishop Wilfred, preacher of the 
Gospel in Sussex in the latter part of the seventh cen- 
tury, that •• When he arrived there, a famine was pre- 
vailing. The sea and rivers were full of fish, but the 
people only understood how to catch eels. He had first 
to instruct them in fishing. He caused all the nets to be 
brought together ; his people used them in the right way, 
and caught three hundred fish of various kinds. One 
hundred of these he kept for his own people ; one hun- 
dred he gave to those who had lent the nets ; one hun- 
dred to the poor. By this means he won the love of the 
people : and now that they had to thank him for earthly 
blessings, they heard him so much the more gladly when 
he told them of heavenly things." 



214 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

wilderness, and knew its paths well. Attended by 
him, he set out to seek a place adapted for build- 
ing, and well provided with fresh water. The dea- 
con gave him a terrific description of the wild beasts 
in the forest : but Gallus answered, "It is the say- 
ing of the Apostle — If God be for us, who can be 
against us ? and, all things work together for good 
to those who love God. He who delivered Daniel 
from the den of lions, can also deliver me from the 
power of the wild beasts." Then the deacon said : 
" Only put some bread and a small net in thy knap- 
sack, and to-morrow I will guide thee into the 
wilderness. The God who has brought thee to us 
from the far country, will send his angel with us, 
as once with his servant Tobias, and will show us a 
place suitable to thy pious work." Armed by 
prayer, Gallus set out on his journey. When they 
had journeyed about three hours, Hillibald said : 
" Let us now take some bread and water, that we 
may be strengthened to go the rest of the way." 
Gallus answered : " My son, do thou what is need- 
ful to strengthen thee ; I am resolved to taste no- 
thing until God has shown me my desired place of 
rest." But the deacon replied : " Nay, we will 
share the inconvenience, and then also the joy, 
with one another." Then they pursued their way 
until the evening, when they came to a stream full 
of fish, which precipitated itself from a rock. They 
succeeded in catching many fish ; the deacon lighted 
a fire ; he cooked the fish, and took bread from the 
knapsack. Gallus meanwhile went a little apart to 



GALLUS OF SWITZERLAND. 215 

pray ; but he entangled himself in the bushes, and 
fell. The deacon hastened forward to help him ; 
but Gallus motioned him back, saying, " Leave me ; 
this is appointed for my resting-place throughout 
my life — here will I dwell." He consecrated the 
place by prayer ; and when he arose from his 
knees, he made a cross out of the branch of a tree, 
and planted it in the ground ; and on the cross he 
hung some relics, which he carried in a basket 
round his neck. Then, again, they both fell on 
their knees in prayer, and there they founded the 
convent which afterwards went by the name of St. 
Gall. There Gallus laboured in the education of 
youth, and in the training of monks and priests, by 
whom the seeds of Christian knowledge were further 
spread ; and thence he diffused many spiritual and 
temporal blessings among the people. When he 
received presents from the great men of the coun- 
try, he used to assemble the poor of the district, 
and distribute what he had received amongst them. 
On one of these occasions, one of his scholars said 
to him : " My father, I have a costly silver vessel, 
beautifully embossed ; if you will permit me, I will 
keep it for a sacramental chalice." But Gallus an- 
swered : " My son, think on the word of Peter, 
' Gold and silver have I none,' and in order not to 
do anything contrary to so wholesome an example, 
hasten to employ the vessel for the good of the 
poor. My teacher Columban used to distribute the 
body of the Lord in vessels of common metal." 
The vacant see of Constance was offered to Gal- 



216 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

lus ; but he preferred to continue his quiet labours 
in the convent, and refused the office. He recom- 
mended for the office, in his stead, the deacon John, 
a native of the country, who had studied the Holy 
Scriptures under his guidance. When, at the con- 
secration of the bishop, a great multitude flocked 
together, Gallus availed himself of this opportunity, 
in order to describe to the new converts the love of 
God as manifested in Creation and Redemption, 
and to lay before them the great scheme of God 
for the salvation of men. He ascended the pulpit 
with his disciple John, and what he said in the 
Latin language, was interpreted by John into Ger- 
man, for the assembled multitude. Of the Creation, 
he said : " God created beings endowed with rea- 
son to praise Him ; and by Him, in Him, and 
through Him, to live happily. This cause of your 
creation, ye should recognise, my Christian breth- 
ren, lest ye should have to regard yourselves as 
lost beings, destroying your dignity by a brutish 
life. For that God, who is the highest good, re- 
solved to create beings in His own image, endowed 
with reason, that, acknowledging Him as their Lord, 
and the Author of their existence, and filled with 
His love, they should rejoice to find their happiness 
in Him." 

Then he deduces the origin of all evil, from the 
desire of reasonable beings, to be the basis of their 
own existence, and to find life and happiness in 
themselves ; thence arose their inivard void, inas- 
much as the creature, if turned away from the 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 21 1 

fountain of life, and abandoned to itself, must sink 
from fulness into emptiness, from existence to no- 
thingness. He closed the whole discourse with 
this exhortation : " We, who are the unworthy 
messengers of the faith in this age, conjure you, 
in the name of Christ, that ye ever renounce the 
devil and all his works, as ye have once renounced 
him in your baptism ; that ye acknowledge the one 
true God and Father, who ruleth eternally in hea- 
ven — the Eternal Wisdom, who for us became a 
man in time — and the Holy Ghost, the earnest of 
eternal bliss granted us on this pilgrimage ; and 
that ye seek to live as becomes the children of 
God. Be ye kind to one another, forgiving one 
another, as God has forgiven you your sins. The 
Almighty God, who wills that all men should be 
saved, and should come to a knowledge of the 
truth, — who sends this message to your ears by the 
ministry of my tongue, — may He Himself cause it 
to bring forth fruit in your hearts by His grace !" 



BONIFACE, APOSTLE OF THE GERMANS. 

Boniface, or Winfried, as they called him in Ancdo- 
Saxon, born at Crediton in Devonshire, in 680, de- 
serves to be honoured as the father of the German 
Church, although he was by no means the first who 
brought the seeds of the Gospel to Germany. 
Many had already laboured before him ; but the 
efforts which had been made here and there did 



218 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

not suffice to secure the endurance of Christianity 
amongst the many perils to which it was exposed. 
Christianity needs to be linked with firm ecclesiasti- 
cal institutions, and this was first done by Boniface, 
to whose labours so many even to this moment 
owe their salvation. 

It is remarkable in the history of the first train- 
ing of Boniface, that the germs of religion were 
early developed in his heart. The custom had 
been retained in England, from the days of the 
first pious Irish missionaries, of the clergy visiting 
the houses of the laity, and giving exhortations to 
their families on religious subjects. The boy used 
attentively to listen on these occasions, and they 
gladly conversed with him on matters of religion. 
His father sought to repress his inclination for a 
religious life, for he had destined him for a distin- 
guished place in the world. But as is so frequently 
the case, this disposition of mind only gained the 
more strength, the more his father endeavoured to 
repress it, and the father was at length moved by 
a severe sickness to yield to his son's inclination. 
Boniface educated himself in many famous Eng- 
lish convents, where he became especially learned 
in the Holy Scriptures, which were hereafter to 
serve him as a light on his way amongst the un- 
civilized nations. His spirit was indeed cramped 
by many prejudices which hindered him from per- 
ceiving the pure doctrine of the Scriptures, and 
which must necessarily have hindered his subse- 
quent missionary labours — for the purer and freer 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 219 

Christianity is, the less darkened by human work, 
the more easily can it penetrate into the hearts of 
men, the more easily the Divine power of attrac- 
tion in it is preserved in all situations. 

When Boniface had passed his thirty-fifth year, 
he felt incited by the example of the earlier mis- 
sionaries amongst his countrymen, to carry the 
message of salvation to the heathen. What would 
have become of our fatherland, if God had not 
then awakened by his Spirit, especially in England 
and Ireland, this zeal for missions ! As we now 
look joyfully back on the labours of those heroes 
of the faith to whom we owe the blessings of 
Christianity and all our civilization, so one day will 
the Churches gathered out from the heathen in 
Southern India, Asia, and Africa, when they shall 
have received through Christianity the abundance 
of earthly and heavenly blessings, look thankfully 
back on the awakening missionary zeal of these our 
days. Egbert, an English priest, had given the 
first impulse to this missionary activity. This Eg- 
bert had vowed, hi a mortal sickness, to consecrate 
his life, if it should be restored to him, to the ser- 
vice of the Lord amongst foreign nations. He 
afterwards set forth with other Christians to travel 
to the German tribes; and although he himself, 
when on the point of sailing, was detained by many 
circumstances, this was the first impulse to the 
great work. 

Boniface himself confesses that the natural in- 
stinct implanted in his nation combined with the 



220 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

religious interest to impel him to missionary la- 
bours, — "the love of travelling, and the fear of 
Christ," — as he expresses it in a letter. He calls 
it the fear of Christ, because he regarded it as a 
debt which he owed to the heathen, as a duty laid 
upon him by Christ, which he believed himself 
bound to fulfil. He would have exclaimed with 
the Apostle Paul, " Woe unto me if I preach not 
the Gospel." He had at first assisted the zealous 
Willibrord in his labours, one of those missionaries 
who had followed the impulse given by Egbert, 
and founded the Church in East Friesland and the 
Netherlands. Willibrord wished to retain him, that 
he might succeed him as archbishop of Utrecht ; 
but his Divine calling withheld him. He felt con- 
strained to commence a new work amongst the 
heathen tribes of Germany. That which by day 
lay on his conscience recurred to him by night in 
admonitory dreams, and great prospects opened to 
him for the future, as a female friend from Eng- 
land afterwards reminded him, observing that God 
had appeared to him in a dream, and promised him 
a great harvest amongst the heathen. 

The estimation in which he held the Holy Scrip- 
tures is shown in these words of his to a young 
compatriot, whom he exhorted to the diligent study 
of the Bible : "Cast all which hinders thee away, 
and direct thy whole study to the Holy Scriptures, 
and seek there that Divine Wisdom which is more 
precious than gold ; for what does it become youth 
more to seek, what can old age more profitably 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 221 

possess, than the knowledge of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, which guide our souls without risk of ship- 
wreck through the storm to the shores of the 
blessed Paradise, to the eternal and heavenly joys 
of the angels!" To an abbess, who had sent him 
some Bibles, he wrote in thanking her : " That she 
had consoled the exile in Germany with Divine 
light ; for he who has to visit the dark recesses of 
the German tribes, would fall into the jaws of 
death, if he had not the Word of the Lord as a 
light to his feet and a lamp unto his path." He 
begged his old friend Daniel, bishop of Winches- 
ter, to send him a manuscript of the prophets left 
behind by his deceased teacher and abbot Wim- 
bert, which was written in clear and well-divided 
letters. " If God puts this into your heart," he 
wrote him, " you cannot confer a greater and more 
living consolation to my old age ; for such a manu- 
script of the prophets as I desire, I cannot procure 
in this country ; and with my already decaying 
sight, I cannot read small and confused letters." 

We can see in these words of his to an English 
abbess, what was the ground of his confidence in 
all his labours and conflicts : " Pray for me, that 
He who dwelleth on high, and yet looks on the 
lowly, (Psa. cxiii, 5,) may forgive me my sins, that 
the Word may be given me with a joyful liberty 
of speech, that the Gospel of the glory of Christ 
may have full course amongst the heathen, and be 
glorified." In his twenty-second letter to some 
English nuns : " I beseech you, (as I have conn- 



222 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

dence also towards you that ye constantly do,) 
pray diligently to the Lord that we may be de- 
livered from unrighteous and cruel men; for all 
men have not faith. And know that we praise 
God, although the sufferings of our heart are many. 
May the Lord our God, who is the refuge of the 
poor and the hope of the humble, deliver us from 
our need, and from the temptations of this evil 
world, that the glorious Gospel of Christ may be 
glorified, that the grace of God in me may not be 
in vain ! And although I am the last and worst 
of all the messengers which the Roman Church 
has sent forth to proclaim the Gospel, yet would I 
not die unfruitful, without bringing fruit to the 
Gospel ; I would not go home without leaving 
some sons and daughters behind me, lest, when the 
Lord comes, I should be found guilty of burying 
my talent ; lest, for the guilt of my sins, instead 
of the reward of labour, I should receive the pun- 
ishment of unfruitful labour from Him who has 
sent me." Thus (as becomes an humble labourer 
in the Lord's vineyard, who can distinguish be- 
tween the Divinity of the thing and the infirmity 
of the human organ) did he seek first in his own 
sinfulness and deficiencies the cause of the hin- 
derance of his labours. In a treatise addressed to 
the English clergy, he says : " Seek to obtain by 
your prayers that our God and Lord Jesus Christ, 
who wills that all men should be saved and should 
come to the knowledge of the truth, may convert 
the hearts of these heathen Saxons to the faith, 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 223 

that they may be delivered out of the snares of 
the devil in which they are entangled, and may 
become children of the mother- Church. Have 
compassion on them ; for even they are wont to 
say, ' We are of one flesh and bone ' with the An- 
glo-Saxons." To an English abbot : "We beseech 
thee earnestly, that thou wouldest aid us, who la- 
bour amono-st the wild and ignorant tribes of Ger- 
es o 

many, and scatter the seeds of the Gospel, with 
thy prayers. For neither is he that planteth any- 
thing, nor he that watereth, but God who giveth 
the increase." In a letter to an English bishop : 
" I need your prayers, because the sea of Germany 
is so perilous to navigate, that through your prayer, 
and under God's guidance, without defilement or 
injury to my soul, I may reach the haven of eter- 
nal rest ; that I may not, whilst I seek to bring the 
lio^ht of evangelical truth to the blind, who know 
not their darkness and will not look up, be my- 
self covered by the darkness of my own sins ; that 
I may not have run or laboured in vain ; that I, 
supported by your intercession, may attain, un- 
stained and enlightened, to the light of eternity." 
And : " Pray the beloved Champion of our life, 
the only refuge of the distressed, the Lamb of 
God who taketh awa} T the sins of the world, that 
he may preserve us uninjured by his guardian 
hand, that our gracious Father may place burning 
torches in our hands, and that He may enlighten 
the hearts of the heathen to see the Gospel of the 
glory of Christ." 



224 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

Boniface availed himself of the help of the secular 
power, to guard his churches and cloisters from the 
devastations of the barbarous heathen, to secure the 
life of the monks and nuns whom he had invited 
from his fatherland to educate the heathen, and 
civilize the converts, and to procure the necessary 
means of sustenance ; and when Christianity had 
gained an entrance, to destroy the old traditional 
objects of heathen idolatry, which were continually 
recalling the rude tribes to their old worship, and 
perpetually restored to their old uses. One re- 
markable incident will show how Boniface was able 
to work on uncivilized men by means of outward 
impressions. When he was preaching the Gospel 
in Hesse, an ancient oak, of gigantic size, conse- 
crated to Thor the Thunderer, the sight of which 
filled the people with great reverence, powerfully 
counteracted the influence of his sermons. The 
people could not get freed from their faith in the 
Divine power of this oak, and were, therefore, even 
when the sermons of Boniface made a momentary 
impression, ever ready again to fall into heathenism. 
So Boniface, by the advice of those Hessian Chris- 
tians who had resisted the seductions of heathenism, 
went with a few attendants to the oak. He him- 
self cut down the tree with an axe, whilst the hea- 
then crowd furiously surrounded him. When, 
however, they saw the oak fall asunder in four 
pieces, without their god being able to take ven- 
geance on Boniface, their delusion at once fell with 
it. In order to perpetuate the impression of this 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 225 

circumstance, Boniface immediately caused a chapel 
to be built of the wood. 

The chief effort of Boniface was to produce an 
impression on the hearts of the young by religious 
education, and the communication of Christian cul- 
ture. His zealous attention to the educational in- 
stitutions attached to the convents, as well as many 
other things, contradict the accusation of his having 
endeavoured to compel the outward conversion of 
the people by means of the secular power, of whose 
co-operation he availed himself in the instances ad- 
duced above. 

His fatherly care for the education and training 
of the new converts, is beautifully expressed in a 
letter, in which he entreated the Frankish court- 
chaplain, Fulrad, to endeavour, that after his death 
a zealous and able man should be placed at the head 
of his work, which, after twenty years of activity, 
he was on the point of leaving : "I beseech his 
majesty the king," (Pepin,) he writes, " in the name 
of Christ the Son of God, that he would deign to 
show me in my lifetime what reward he will here- 
after bestow on my scholars : for they are almost 
entirelv strangers — some are priests, appointed in 
various places to the service of the Church and the 
congregations ; some monks, who have been ap- 
pointed in our cells to teach children to read ; some 
old men, who have laboured with me long and sus- 
tained me. I am anxious on account of all these, 
lest after my death they should be scattered as 
sheep that have no shepherd, and lest the people 
15 



226 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

who dwell on trie borders of the heathen should 
lose their Christianity again. My clergymen on the 
frontiers of the heathen lead a wretched life.. Bread 
to eat they can obtain, but clothes they cannot, if 
they do not get advice and assistance from other 
quarters, as they hare from me, that they might 
be enabled to remain in such places in the service 
of the people." 

His friend Daniel, bishop of Winchester, when 
first he entered on his sphere of action, gave him 
instructions which contain much that is useful : 
" Before all, he should show the heathen that he 
was accurately acquainted with their religion; he 
should, by means of questions, let them find out for 
themselves what was unreasonable and contradic- 
tory in their doctrines, in such a manner as not to 
ridicule or irritate them, but with all gentleness and 
moderation, here and there instituting a comparison 
between their own and the Christian doctrines, yet 
letting these only appear by the way, so that the 
heathen should not be so much embittered against 
him, as disgusted with their own false opinions." 

The following is a specimen of his mode of preach- 
ing : " See, my beloved, what a message we bring 
you, — not a message from one from whose service 
you may purchase exemption ;* but a message 
from Him to whom you are indebted for His blood 

* According to the custom of the German tribes, of pur- 
chasing exemption from punishment ; of repaying wrongs 
by a fine in money, -which was the origin of the perni- 
cious system of indulgence?. 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 227 

shed for you. "We exhort you, live in lawful wed- 
lock ; let no one further defile himself with a pro- 
hibited union ; let no one who has so erred ap- 
proach the body of so great a Lord, before he has 
truly repented, that it may not injure instead of 
benefitting him. My beloved, we are ourselves un- 
clean men, and yet we would not suffer our limbs 
to be touched by anything unclean : and can we 
believe that the only-begotten Son of God will suf- 
fer us to approach Him with sin in our hearts ? 
See, brethren, our King, who has deigned to send 
us this embassy, Himself comes to us. Let us then 
prepare Him a pure dwelling, that He himself may 
dwell in our body. We entreat you, dearest sons, 
that ye who are wont to fear the laws of the world, 
would also willingly submit to the laws of our God. 
It is He who speaks to you by our lips — whose 
Easter festival ye have lately kept — who did not 
withhold His onlv- begotten Son from the hands of 
His persecutors, in order to admit us into the in- 
heritance of His children. If you have learned 
what wonderful grace He has shown towards us 
by His sufferings, obey then the more zealously His 
commands, lest by our disobedience to His com- 
mands we should be guilty of ingratitude for His 
kindness." 

He then controverts the objection which is often 
made amongst heathen nations to the preaching of 
the Gospel : '•' How could God, if Christianity were 
the only saving religion, have left men for thousands 
of years without it?" Undoubtedly, the mission- 



228 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

aries, fettered as they were by arbitrary opinions, 
may have contributed to arouse such objections, by 
asserting more than the Holy Scriptures justified 
them in saying, — by applying to all unbelievers, 
even to such as could not have believed, because 
they had not heard, (Rom. x, 14,) what the Scrip- 
tures only apply to those who obstinately reject 
the Gospel preached to them. The example of 
Cornelius, and what the apostle Peter says in con- 
nexion with it, justifies us in deducing thence the 
general law, that those who, even without knowing 
anything of Christ, follow the guidance of that God, 
in whom we live, and move, and have our being, 
will, like Cornelius, if not here below, yet in another 
existence, be led to the knowledge of Him who is 
the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

Without further occupying himself with answer- 
ing this objection, Boniface addresses himself to 
that careless tendency to seek excuses for unbelief 
and sin, from which, in many instances, these doubts 
arose, and recurs to the personal necessities of each. 
" There are some amongst you," he says, " and 
O that they may be but few ! who complain of 
our neglect, in having so delayed to preach to you 
the way of salvation. Their sorrow would be more 
just, if they were, at least, now willing to accept 
the means of salvation ; for how can he who, how- 
ever late, refuses to suffer himself to be healed, 
complain of the dilatoriness of the physician ? In- 
| deed, the longer the sickness has lasted, the greater 
should be the submissiveness of the patient. For 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 229 

who can bear the pride of the sick man, who com- 
plains of his sickness, and yet will not take the. 
remedies for it ? How many, my beloved sons, do 
we find, who, whilst they continue in sin, vet mur- 
mur at Christ's having come so late — at His having 
suffered so many thousands to perish before His 
incarnation ! If we yield to the complaints of such 
people, we must also remain sick after the gift of 
such a physician. "Wherefore, man, dost thou 
murmur at the Sun of Righteousness, for having" 
arisen so late, when, even after its rising, thou still 
walkest in darkness ? Shall we, because clouds 
have long covered the heavens, on that account re- 
fuse to rejoice at the return of fine weather ?" 

He frequently begged his friends in England to 
send him expositions of certain passages in the 
Bible, which he wished to use in his sermons — for 
instance, a manual of Bede's expositions of the texts 
for Sundays and holidays, which was useful for 
preachers. In order to impress a due reverence for 
the Holy Scriptures on ignorant men, he caused a 
copy of a portion of the Bible, which he intended 
to employ in his sermons, to be written in England 
with golden letters. For this purpose he specially 
chose the Epistles of the apostle Peter, because, on 
account of his relations with the pope, he looked 
on himself as an ambassador of that apostle. " He 
wished," he wrote, " to have the words of him who 
had preceded him on the good way, ever before his 
eyes." From these words we perceive how genuine, 
even though prejudiced, and how far from the 



230 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

designs of worldly policy, was his reverence for the 
popes. His care for the diffusion of religious know- 
ledge amongst the people, may be inferred from 
his repeated orders that every layman should know 
the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the baptismal 
formula of renunciation, in German, before his 
baptism. 

How full Boniface was of the grandeur and re- 
sponsibility of his calling as archbishop of the Ger- 
man Church, may be gathered from his letter to 
an English bishop : " The apostle (Paul) calls the 
priest an overseer, (bishop ;) the prophet (Ezekiel) 
calls him a watchman ; the Redeemer, a shepherd 
of the Church ; and all declare that the teacher 
who is silent about the sins of his people, by his 
silence incurs the guilt of the blood of souls. There- 
fore a great and fearful necessity constrains us, ac- 
cording to the apostle's words, to be examples to 
the flock, — that is, the teacher ought to live so 
piously, as not to paralyze his words by inconsist- 
ent deeds, and so as not, even whilst living pru- 
dently himself, by his silence, to incur condemna- 
tion for the sins of others. ' Thou shalt hear the 
word at my mouth, and give them warning from 
me, saith the Lord.' Ezek. hi, 17." He proves 
from this that the priest should say that which he 
has learned from the study of the Divine Word, — 
what God has committed to him, not what human 
wit has devised. From me — my words, not thine, 
shalt thou proclaim ; thou hast no cause to exalt 
thyself on this account. " If I say to the wicked, 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 231 

Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not 
warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his 
evil way, to save his life, the same wicked man 
shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require 
at thy hand." Ezek. iii, 18. Let us not, then, have 
so stony a heart, that these words of the Lord fail 
to strike us with dread. All that God would have 
observed He has so clearly revealed, and confirmed 
with the authority of His name, that it were better 
— shameful as this would be — to confess that we 
despise it, than lyingly say we have not understood 
what He has so plainly revealed. Have we not heard 
it, " Thus saith the Lord." Who, then, unless he 
disbelieve God himself, can doubt that what God 
has said will happen ? Since, therefore, these 
things are so, the weary soul flies for refuge to Him 
who says, through Solomon, " Trust in the Lord 
with all thy heart, and lean not to thine own un- 
derstandino;. Commit thy wav unto Him, and He 
shall direct thy paths." And in another place, 
" The name of the Lord is a strong tower ; the 
righteous fleeth unto it and is safe." Let us there- 
fore stand firm in righteousness, armed against 
temptation, and bear what the Lord gives us to 
bear, saying to Him, " Lord God, thou art our 
refuse from everlasting to everlasting." Psa. xc, 1. 
Let us trust in Him who hath laid the burden on 
us. What we cannot bear by ourselves, let us bear 
through Him who is Almighty, who says, "My 
yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 

Devoted as Boniface was to the popes, he yet 



232 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

by no means shrank from telling them the truth, 
when the welfare of the new Church required it. 
Relics of the old superstitious Pagan customs and 
excesses on New- Year's day had been still retained 
at Rome ; amulets were worn there by women, and 
recommended by the authorities. Now, as mem- 
bers of the new Churches frequently journeyed to 
Rome, such people ever after deemed such abuses, 
which were tolerated under the eyes of the Pope, 
as thereby authorized, and murmured against Boni- 
face, who strove with so much zeal thoroughly to 
annihilate all Pagan superstitions and customs. 
Boniface made earnest remonstrances on this sub- 
ject to Pope Zacharias : " Carnal men," he wrote, 
"ignorant Germans, Bavarians, and Franks, when 
they see some of the evil things which we forbid 
practised at Rome, imagine that they are permitted 
by the priests ; they then throw out accusations 
against us, and take offence, and thus our preach- 
ing and teaching are hindered." 

This Christian boldness, united with a wise con- 
sideration and tolerance, were also shown by Boni- 
face in his behaviour towards Ethelbald, king of 
the Mercians. As, amidst his universal activity, 
he still took a warm share in the affairs of his 
fatherland, it pained him much to hear of the un- 
chaste life of this prince, and he resolved himself to 
write to him. He began his letter by acknowledg- 
ing and commending what was good in the king : 
" I have heard that you distribute many alms, and 
I rejoice at this on your account ; for he who gives 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 233 

alms to the least of his needy brethren, will, in the 
day of judgment, receive this gracious sentence 
from the Lord, c In that you did it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, you did it unto me ; 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world.' I have also heard that 
you strictly prohibit theft, rapine, and perjury ; 
that you show yourself a friend of the widow and 
the poor, and preserve a steady peace in your do- 
minions ; for this also I have praised God ; for He 
who is himself the truth and peace — our Lord 
Jesus Christ — says : ' Blessed are the peace-makers, 
for they shall be called the children of God.' " 
Then he proceeds to the reports of the disorderly 
life of the prince, and says, "I conjure you by Christ, 
the Son of God, by his coming again, and His king- 
dom, that if this is true you amend your life by 
repentance, and think how unseemly it is that by 
serving your lusts you should change the image of 
God created in you into the image of the devil ; and 
that you, who, not for your own deserts, but by the 
rich grace of God, have been made a ruler over 
many, should, by sin, make yourself a slave of the 
evil spirit ; for, as the Lord says, ' He who com- 
mitteth sin is the servant of sin.' " Then, to the 
shame of nominal Christians, he brings forward the 
example of the German Saxons, who were distin- 
guished for their chastity, even before their conver- 
sion to Christianity. " Thus the heathen who know 
not God, and have not the law, do by nature the 
things contained in the law, having the law written 



234 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

in their hearts." "It is time," he says, "that you 
should have compassion on the multitude of perish- 
ing people who, following the example of their sinful 
prince, are sinking into the abyss of destruction ; 
for as many as we by our good example draw to 
the life of the heavenly country, or by our bad ex- 
ample mislead to destruction — for so many we shall 
doubtless receive either reward or punishment from 
the Eternal Judge." He then declares to the king, 
that if the sanctity of marriage is not upheld in a 
nation, a race of degenerate youth, ever sinking 
lower and lower, will be the result, as amongst the 
nations of Spain, who had at length fallen under 
the power of the Saracens. In order to prepare 
the kino* for this letter, he sent him another shorter 
letter by another messenger, in which he made no 
allusion to the contents of the first, and which, ac- 
cording to the custom of the times, he accompanied 
with some appropriate presents for the king,* — two 
falcons, two shields, and two lances. "Although 
the gifts are unworthy of your acceptance," he 
writes, " yet accept them as tokens of love. And, 
finally, may we all hearken to these words : ' Fear 
God, and keep his commandments ;' and when you 

°It was customary in that age to unite presents with, 
letters. The gift was simple, according to the character 
of the age. To the Pope Zacharias, Boniface sent a 
woollen cloth for wiping the feet (a gift which he fre- 
quently bestowed, alluding to the washing one another's 
feet as a sign of humility) and some silver ; to an English 
bishop, two flasks of wine ; to a Koman ecclesiastical 
officer, a silver goblet and a linen cloth. 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 235 

receive another letter by another messenger, I 
entreat you carefully to observe what is -written 
therein." 

But this first letter was not to come immediately 
into the hands of the prince ; Boniface sent it to 
Herefried, a presbyter, to read it aloud to the king. 
" For we have heard," he wrote to Herefricd, "that 
you, by the fear of God, are delivered from the fear 
of man, and that this prince has often deigned in 
some measure to hearken to your exhortations ; 
and you must know that I have addressed these 
words of exhortation to the king out of pure love, 
and because I was born and brought up amongst 
Englishmen, because I rejoice in the welfare of my 
people, and the praise bestowed upon it, but mourn 
over its sins, and the reproach cast upon it." 
Thus did Boniface combine all Christian prudence 
with the holy zeal which bears the sword of the 
Spirit. 

Whilst we acknowledge the work of the Divine 
Spirit in a man employed by God as an instrument 
to found His kingdom amongst an important por- 
tion of mankind, and must be careful not to deny 
this work of the Spirit, manifesting itself by its 
fruits to be such, in consequence of the imperfec- 
tions of the flesh, nevertheless we must not leave 
these imperfections unnoticed and unexposed. We 
must, as in testing ourselves, so also in testing 
others, be ever on our o-uard not to confound the 
things of the flesh with the things of the Spirit. 

That which marred the operations of Boniface 



236 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

was, that he did not recognise in its full extent the 
liberty of the children of God, who are dead with 
Christ to the elements of the world, whose life no 
longer belongs to this world, but, hidden with 
Christ in God, belongs to heaven, and therefore 
cannot be led captive by the elements of this world. 
He knew, indeed, the basis of Christianity, and 
possessed it in his inward life ; he possessed in this 
more than he knew how to explain in words, be- 
cause his knowledge was not yet developed in pro- 
portion to the life of his faith. But with this in- 
ward Christianity he combined a certain clinging to 
outward things which are foreign to it. He did 
indeed build on the only foundation, which is 
Christ ; and therefore his work, as a Divine thing, 
was sure to endure, and to be unfolded by Divine 
power in the course of centuries, and to be purified 
in the fire ; but on this foundation he had built not 
pure gold alone, but also wood, hay, and stubble. 
And here it ought to be said in excuse for him that 
he was not himself the originator of this confusion, 
but that it was already existing before his time. It 
was first by the fire enkindled by the Lord at the 
Reformation that the wood, hay, and stubble were 
consumed, so that the foundation shone out in its 
genuine brilliancy. 

What the apostle Paul says to the Galatians is 
applicable, in a measure, to the whole Church : — 
''Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made 
perfect in the flesh ? Why therefore do ye turn 
again to the weak and beggarly elements where- 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 237 

unto ye desire to be in bondage?" But in this 
development of the Church also we recognise the 
guiding wisdom of her invisible Ruler, who suffered 
the law again to become the schoolmaster of un- 
civilized humanity, in order to lead to the righte- 
ousness of faith, to the Gospel of the Spirit, which 
was again clearly brought to light in the Reforma- 
tion, in opposition to the old confused mixture of 
the law and the Gospel. Even under the shell of 
these ordinances respecting outward things, the 
kernel of the Gospel was ever preserved, and it 
only needed to burst this shell in order to manifest 
itself in its genuine energy. And even this mixture 
of the law and the Gospel diffused itself in the 
Church after the things of the Spirit were fettered 
by outward traditions; the Spirit of the Gospel 
was ever awaking individual witnesses, who mani- 
fested more purely the things of the Spirit, and 
who felt themselves constrained to resist this bon- 
dage under the elements of the world. They were 
the lights shining in the dark place until the day 
should break, and the day-star arise on the Church 
of God. To this number would seem to belong 
Clement of Ireland, the opposer of Boniface. The 
British and Irish missionaries were, in freedom of 
spirit and purity of Christian knowledge, far su- 
perior to Boniface. It is a beautiful memorial of 
the spirit of Christian freedom, that answer of an 
abbot of the British Abbey of Bangor to the claim 
of Augustine, of obedience to the Roman Church : 
" Know ye, and be assured that we all are subject 



238 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

to the Church of God, to the Pope of Rome, and 
also to every believer in Christ, inasmuch as we are 
ready to love every one in his degree, and to help 
every one in word and deed. Of any other obedi- 
ence which we owe to him whom you call the pope 
or the father of the fathers, I know nothing. This 
obedience we are ready eternally to render to him 
and to every Christian." Thus also had Clement 
brought with him from his fatherland a pure Chris- 
tian wisdom, free from the human traditions of the 
Roman Church. In questions of faith he would 
only recognise the authority of the Holy Scrip- 
tures ; he contested the authority of the ecclesiasti- 
cal laws, and of those eminent fathers of the West- 
ern Church, whose opinions were even then refer- 
red to as an arbitrating power. He asserted, in 
conformity with the teaching of the New Testament, 
that a bishop might be married without injuring 
the dignity of his office. And how much might 
he have effected, had he united the spirit of love 
and wisdom with this free insight, and built the 
German Church upon the basis that the Scriptures, 
explained by themselves, were the only fountain of 
Christian knowledge ! What fruits would Chris- 
tianity, thus embraced in its purity, have pro- 
duced ! 

Yet it may be questioned whether Clement were 
as well fitted as Boniface to deal with uncivilized 
men : whether he knew how appropriately to dis- 
tinguish between the milk and the strong meat ; to 
separate the practically important from the unim- 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 239 

portant ; to exercise due consideration for the powers 
of comprehension of uncivilized men. If Providence 
designed to lead uncivilized men through the disci- 
pline of the law to the Gospel, we can clearly see 
that a Boniface, and not a Clement, must have 
been chosen as the instrument for the formation of 
the German Church. 

Beside this Clement, stands Adalbert the Frank, 
who must not be compared with Clement as to in- 
sight and practical wisdom. He was a predecessor 
of those mystic sects who opposed a certain inward 
religion of the heart, to ceremonial services and the 
traditions of men : but, inasmuch as they followed 
only their feelings and their imagination, whilst the 
Holy Scriptures were not at their side to remind 
them to watch over themselves, — as a warning 
voice against the angels of darkness who clothe 
themselves as ano-els of light in lowly o-uise, and a 
guide to the discerning of spirits, — or, inasmuch as 
they made themselves masters of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, instead of following them, — they fell into many 
perilous self-delusions of enthusiasm, and often op- 
posed, to the errors against which they contended, 
errors of another kind. A sincere piety is breathed 
in this prayer of Adalbert's : " Almighty God, 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thou who art the 
Alpha and the Omega, (the beginning and the end 
of all being,) who sittest enthroned above the cheru- 
bim and seraphim ; Thou great love, sum of all joy, 
Father of the holy angels ; Thou who hast created 
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is; 



240 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

on Thee I call, to Thee I cry, to me, an insignifi- 
cant creature, I entreat Thee to come ; for Thou 
hast graciously promised, ' Whatsoever ye ask the 
Father in my name, that will I do.' Thus, it is 
only Thee I desire ; for on Thee my soul doth 
wait." He spoke also against the too high estima- 
tion of pilgrimages to Rome. But, from the extra- 
ordinary names of angels mixed up with this form 
of prayer, as from much besides, it may be seen 
that Adalbert was the victim of much enthusiasm, 
which it would have been most pernicious to have 
diffused amongst an uncivilized people ; especially 
as the rude multitude paid him an exaggerated 
reverence, which he perhaps did not desire. 

Tightly as the spirit of Boniface was bound, on 
many sides, by the traditions of the Roman Church, 
the quickening spirit of Christianity seems some- 
times to have raised him above them. For in- 
stance : he was sorely perplexed when he heard 
that, according to the laws of the Church, the so- 
called spiritual relationship of sponsorship, was a 
hinderance to the conclusion of a marriage, and 
could not conceive how, in this one instance, spirit- 
ual relationship could be so great a barrier to a 
temporal union, whereas by baptism all were made 
sons and daughters of Christ and the Church, — 
brothers and sisters.* 

° In a similar way did Luther, the second apostle of 
Germany, arrive at the knowledge of the nothingness of 
these traditions of the canon law. In a letter of the year 
1523 (v. De Wette, vol. 1, p. 351,) he says : " And it is to 



BONIFACE OF GERMANY. 241 

Even the last days of bis threescore and ten 
years, Boniface would not spend in comfortable re- 
pose. As he could then happily leave the con- 
tinuance of his work in Germany to his successor 
Lall, the constraint of love impelled him to go 
where the labourers were few. where great con- 
flicts had still to be endured for the Gospel. The 
thought of labouring for the conversion of the Fries- 
landers, for whom, since the fifty years' labours of 
the zealous "Willibrord. nothing had been done, and 
of whom a great number were still heathens, — this 
thouo-ht had never left him : and now that there 

o 

was no more for him to do in Germany, it possessed 
his soul with fresh power. 

He took leave of Lall, his successor, saying to 
him, " I can do no otherwise, — I must go forth, as 
the impulse of my heart constrains me, — for the 
time of my departure is at hand. But thou, my 
beloved son, finish the foundation of the churches 
in Thuringia, which I have begun ; call back the 
people diligently from errors ; complete the erec- 
tion of the church at Fulda, (the darling institution 
of Boniface :) and there be the resting-place of my 

be observed, that it is a very great tiling that we all have 
one baptism, one sacrament, one God. and one Spirit, by 
virtue whereof we are all spiritual brethren and sisters. 
Since, then, this spiritual brotherhood does not hinder 
me from taking a wife, who has the same baptism with 
myself, why should my having stood for her at the font 
hinder me, which is far less ? The evil spirit has in- 
vented this law. to confound God in his free gover- 
nance." 

16 



242 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

body, bowed down as it is with the burden of 
years." He desired Lall to provide all things 
necessary for his journey, and especially to place 
in his trunk books (he always carried religious 
books with him, from which he used to read on the 
way) and a cloth, in which they might wrap his 
body when they brought it back to Fulda. 

He collected the last strength of his old age, in- 
creased by the inspiration of faith, and travelled 
through Friesland in his seventieth year with the 
energy of youth; he preached, he convinced, and 
baptized thousands, he destroyed heathen temples, 
and founded churches. The baptized had been 
scattered, and he desired them all to assemble on 
a certain day, before him, to receive confirmation. 
Boniface and his companions had, meanwhile, pitch- 
ed their tents by the river Burde, near the city of 
Dorkingen, then the boundary between East and 
West Friesland. When the morning of the ap- 
pointed day broke, Boniface watched, with a full 
heart, the arrival of his new converts. He heard 
the tramp of a coming crowd ; but it was a great 
host of armed and furious heathen, who had bound 
themselves by an oath to destroy on that day the 
foe of their gods. The Christian youths who ac- 
companied Boniface wished to defend him, and a 
battle was about to begin ; but as soon as he heard 
the tumult, he came forth, attended by his clergy 
bearing the relics which they had with them, and 
he said to the youths, " Cease to strive ; for the 
Holy Scriptures teach us plainly, not to recom- 



GREGORY OF UTRECHT. 243 

pense evil with evil, but with good. Long have 1 
desired this day, and of itself the day of my depar- 
ture cannot be far off. Be strong in the Lord, and 
bear with thankful resignation -what His grace shall 
send. Trust in Him, and he will deliver your 
souls." And to the priests he said, "My brethren, 
be of good cheer, and suffer not yourselves to be 
terrified by those who can indeed kill the body, 
but cannot touch the soul destined for eternal life. 
Rejoice in the Lord, and cast the anchor of your 
hope upon Him, who will soon bestow on you the 
meed of eternal joy. Endure steadfastly the brief 
moment of death, that ye may reign everlastingly 
with Christ." Thus, on the 5th of June, loo, he 
died the martyr's death. 



GREGORY, ABBOT OF UTRECHT. 

Boniface had especially directed his attention to 
youth, and had thus scattered seed which continued 
to bear fruit after his death. He was by these 
means enabled to leave men behind him, who, 
trained and moulded by him, carried out his labours 
in various spheres in his own spirit. Among these 
scholars of his, the abbot Gregory was especially 
distinguished. The way in which Boniface first 
became connected with him, shows, in a remarka- 
ble manner, what power he exercised over youthful 
minds. 

When Boniface left his first sphere of action in 



244 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, 

Friesland and proceeded to Hesse, he arrived at a 
convent of nuns situated on the banks of the 
Moselle, in the neighbourhood of Treves, where 
the abbess Addula received him very hospitably. 
At table something was to be read, according to 
custom, from the Holy Scriptures. For this pur- 
pose the abbess selected her grandson Gregory, a 
youth of fifteen, just returned from school. After 
Boniface had given him his blessing, he read aloud 
a passage from the Latin Bible. Boniface thought 
that he perceived a lively mind in the boy, and said 
to him when he had ceased to read, " You read 
well, my son, if you understand what you read." 
The boy, who did not catch Boniface's meaning, 
replied, " that he knew perfectly what he had been 
reading." " Well," answered Boniface, " tell me, 
then, how you understand it ?" The boy began 
to read the passage through again. Boniface then 
said, " No, my son, that is not what I mean ; I 
know well that you can read, but I want you to 
translate what you have read into your native lan- 
guage." The boy acknowledged that he could not. 
" Shall I tell you, then, what it means ?" said Boni- 
face. And when the boy begged him to do this, 
Boniface told him to read the whole passage 
through again distinctly, and then he translated it 
into German, and preached on it to the whole 
company. " And," as Lindger, the scholar of 
abbot Gregory, and the narrator of this incident, 
says, " it was manifest from what source those 
words flowed; for they penetrated with such 



GREGORY OF UTRECHT. 245 

rapidity and force into the mind of Gregory, that, 
on this one exhortation of a hitherto unknown 
teacher, he forgot his country and his kindred, 
and going at once to his grandmother, told her that 
he would go with Boniface, and learn from him to 
understand the Holy Scriptures." The abbess 
sought to restrain him, telling him that he did not 
know the man, nor whither he was going. " But 
many waters could not quench this love," Cant, 
viii. Gregory kept to his purpose, and- said to his 
grandmother, " If thou wilt not give me a horse, 
to ride with him, I will go with him on foot." 

Then the grandmother perceived that something 
higher was stirring the heart of the youth ; she 
gave him a horse and servant, and suffered him to 
go away with Boniface. Lindger observes on this : 
4 'It seems to me that the same Spirit then stirred 
in this youth, as enkindled the Apostles, when, on 
a word from the Lord, they left their nets and their 
father, and followed the Redeemer. This was 
effected by the Great Teacher — the One Spirit of 
God, who worketh all things in all men, dividing 
to every man severally as He will." 

Gregory henceforth followed Boniface every- 
where, amidst all dangers and difficulties, as his 
most faithful disciple. Subsequently he travelled 
with him to Rome, and brought thence Bibles, 
which he used in the instruction of youth. He 
accompanied him on his last journey to Friesland, 
and, as abbot of a monastery in Utrecht, he was 
most active after the death of his master, in the 



246 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

diffusion of Christianity and Christian civilization. 
He occupied himself especially in training mission- 
aries and teachers for the Church. Youths from 
France, England, Friesland, Saxony, Swabia, and 
Bavaria, bound together by the bond of holy love, 
were there formed into a training-school for the 
kingdom of God ; and messengers of the Gospel 
went forth from hence in all directions amongst 
the heathen and the recently-converted nations. 
Early in the morning he sat in his cell, and waited, 
with fatherly solicitude, for each one of his scho- 
lars to come to him, that he might communicate 
to each some portion of the Word of God suited 
to the wants and dispositions of each. He fre- 
quently, in his sermons, pressed it home on the 
hearts of his scholars, that the new man can have 
no space to grow, if we do not daily more and 
more die to the old man ; and, in this sense, he 
used often to quote the words of the prophet Jere- 
miah : " I set thee to root out and to pull down, 
and to destroy and to throw down, and to build 
and to plant," (Jer. i, 10,) and therewith he would 
often, as an encouragement in the conflict, connect 
the promise, " Eye hath not seen, nor the ear 
heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man 
to conceive, what the Lord hath prepared for them 
that love Him." 

In his seventieth year, three years before his 
death, Gregory injured his left side. Still he re- 
mained cheerful, went about with his scholars, or 
allowed himself to be carried about bv them, con- 



STURM OF FULDA. 2 4 1 

tinued to expound the Holy Scriptures and to 
preach to them, and to give them compositions to 
study. In the last year of his life his lameness 
had so increased, that — as of old the Apostle John, 
-when he was oravlieaded — he was obliged to suffer 
himself to be carried whithersoever he would go. 
At length he was confined to his bed, when he 
caused the Holy Scriptures to be read to him, or 
psalms to be sung. He retained his full conscious- 
ness to the last day. His scholars had assembled 
round his bed, and were comforting one another 
with the oft-repeated words — " He will not die to- 
day ;" but he gathered his remaining strength to- 
gether, and said : " To-day ye must give me leave 
to depart/' He then caused himself to be carried 
by his scholars to the altar in the church, prayed 
there, received the Holy Supper, and casting a 
longing look towards the altar, departed above, 
where he longed to be. 



ABBOT STURM OF FULDA. 

Amongst the most active of the scholars of Boni- 
face, besides Abbot Gregory, may be mentioned 
Sturm, a man of a noble Bavarian family, who 
was early given up by his parents to Boniface to 
be educated. After having assisted Boniface, 
during three years, in the office of a preacher, the 
idea seized him of founding a convent in one of 
those enormous wildernesses which then covered 



248 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

Germany, and which were only to be reclaimed 
by the civilizing influence of Christianity. As 
Boniface looked on monasteries as an especial in- 
strument of civilization both for the people and 
the country, he was quite content with this pro- 
ject. He gave Sturm two travelling companions, 
and when he had prayed for them and given them 
his blessing, he said : " Go into the beech forest 
(Buchoma, the forest whicli then covered Hesse) — 
God can prepare his servants a place in the desert." 
Two days they journeyed through the wilderness, 
and saw nothing but heaven and earth, and owantic 
trees. On the third day, they came to a place, 
which seemed to them calculated for building, 
(then Hersfeld, Heroldesfeld, now Hirschfeld.) 
After calling on Christ to give his blessing, that 
this place might become a dwelling for them, they 
erected little huts roofed with bark, and abode 
there for a time. Then Sturm repaired to his be- 
loved master, and was required by Boniface, who 
prudently considered all sides of a question, and 
did not reckon only for the moment, to give an ac- 
curate account of the situation, the nature of the 
soil, and the springs. Boniface did not immedi- 
ately tell Sturm his opinion, but made him rest 
awhile near him, and refreshed him by spiritual 
converse. Then he candidly told him that the 
chosen place was too much exposed to the ravages 
of the barbarous Saxons, and that they must seek 
some spot lying deeper in the wood. Long did 
Sturm and his companions search in vain; they 



STURM OF FULDA, 249 

could find no suitable place, corresponding to the 
wishes of their bishop. At length Sturm set out 
quite alone. Alone, he rode on an ass through the 
wildest regions, singing psalms as he went, and 
lifting up his heart to heaven with sighs, — praying 
to God. He only rested when night came upon 
him. The earth was his couch. With a sword 
which he carried with him he cut down a quantity 
of wood from the trees, and built a fortification 
with it around his ass, to guard it from the wild 
beasts with which the forest abounded, whilst he 
himself, having called upon the Lord and signed the 
cross upon his brow in token that he resigned him- 
self wholly to Him, lay peacefully down to sleep. 
Once a troop of wild Slavonians, who were bath- 
ing in the Fulda, met him, and naked as thev were, 
presented a terrific spectacle, receiving him with a 
shout of derision. Their interpreter asked him 
whither he was going. He replied calmly, " Deeper 
into the wilderness ;" and the hand of God guard- 
ed him. The Slavonians suffered him to go quietly 
onwards. At last he reached the goal of his diffi- 
cult and dangerous journey, and found a place 
with which Boniface was quite satisfied. There, 
in the year 7-44, was erected the Abbey of Fulda, 
from which the clearing of the forest commenced, 
and in which the most eminent doctors of the 
German Church were aft er wards trained. Charle- 
magne employed Sturm especially to preach the 
Gospel amongst the wild Saxons, who, often con- 
quered, were as often rebelling against the Frank- 



250 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

ish domination, and the Church, which was forced 
on them with it, and hated by them on that ac- 
count. But preachers of the Gospel, in the train 
of armies, could hardly find true access to the 
hearts of men. Sturm excited the rage of the 
heathen against himself, and the Abbey of Fulda 
was often the object of their devastations. 

On the day before his death, Sturm assembled 
all his people together and said to them : "Ye 
know my endeavour, how until this day I have la- 
boured and carefully provided for your welfare 
and peace, that this convent after my death may 
remain faithful to the will of Christ, and that ye 
may be able here to serve the Lord in love un- 
feigned. Persevere, then, all the days of your 
lives, in the course you have begun. Pray for me 
to the Highest, and forgive me, if I have done any 
evil amongst you, or wronged any man. I forgive 
you all from my heart, all your reproaches against 
me ; also Lall who was ever against me." He 
meant Lall, Archbishop of Mainz, who had been 
engaged in many hot conflicts with Abbot Sturm, 
and had not behaved towards him in the spirit of 
Christian love, although there may have been much 
right and wrong on both sides. 

"When, on the next day, the signs of approaching 
death began to show themselves in him, the monks 
begged him to be their intercessor with the Lord, to 
whom he was going. He replied : " Show yourselves 
worthy, and be such in your lives, that I may justly 
pray for you, and then I will do what you desire." 



ALCUIN OX TRUE MISSIONARY LABOURS. 251 



ALCUIN ON TRUE MISSIONARY LABOURS. 

The cause of the first failure of the mission amongst 
the Saxons, may serve as a lesson and a warning 
to all times. It was this : that they sought to in- 
troduce from without what can only be effected 
from within ; that worldly aims were blended with 
the diffusion of Christianity ; that men did not 
follow the example of the Apostle Paul, who, in 
preaching the Gospel, allowed the Jews to remain 
Jews, and the Greeks, Greeks, and knew how to 
become to the Jews as a Jew, and to the Greeks 
as a Greek. The pious and wise Abbot Alcuin, 
directed the attention of Charlemagne to these de- 
fects and mistakes. He writes to the emperor : 
" Seek for the new nation preachers of upright 
conduct, who are well taught in the faith, who 
follow the example of the Apostles in preaching 
the Gospel ; in the beginning, feeding their hear- 
ers with the milk of the faith, that is, with com- 
fortable doctrines. (1 Cor. iii, 1, 2.) The teacher 
of the world sought thus to show, according to 
the inspiration of the indwelling Christ, that the 
yet tender faith of recently converted tribes should, 
as infancy with milk, be nourished with gentle 
commands, lest the still feeble heart, and terrified 
by the sterner commands, should reject the food 
already received." Alcuin was able to recognise, 
in the mode in which Christ trained the Apostles 
and fitted them for their office, as He Himself de- 



252 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

scribes it, the model of all training and educating 
of nations and individuals in all succeeding cen- 
turies. He refers to the fact, that when Christ 
was asked why his disciples did not fast, he re- 
plied : " No man putteth new wine into old bot- 
tles, lest the bottles burst, and the new wine be 
spilled, and the bottles perish. 7 ' "You may gather 
hence," he adds, " whether or no it is wise to im- 
pose on these savage tribes, in the commencement 
of their faith, the yoke of tithes, (the ecclesiastical 
impost, so hateful to the free Saxons ;) whether 
the Apostles, taught by the Lord Christ himself, 
and sent forth to preach by him, ever demanded 
tithes, or ordered them to be demanded." It should 
also be well attended to, that the office of preach- 
ing and the sacrament of baptism be used in the 
right way, lest the outward baptism of the body 
become useless, because not preceded by the 
knowledge of the faith in the reasoning soul. The 
Lord himself commands (Matt, xxviii, 19) that 
teaching should precede baptism. At due times 
the doctrines of the Gospel should frequently be 
repeated, until the man grow to perfect manhood, 
— until he become a worthy temple of the Holy 
Ghost, and a perfect child of God in works of 
mercy, as our Father which is in heaven is per- 
fect." In the same strain he writes to Arno, Bishop 
of Salzburg, to whom Charlemagne had committed 
the conversion of the Avari : " What avails baptism 
without faith ? since the Apostle says, Without 
faith it is impossible to please God. It is on this 



ALCUIN ON TRUE MISSIONARY LABOURS. 253 

account that the unhappy nation of the Saxons 
has so often abused the sacrament of baptism, be- 
cause the foundation of faith was not laid in the 
heart. But this also we ought to acknowledge, 
that faith, as Saint Augustine says, is a thing of 
free will, not of constraint. How can a man be 
compelled to believe what he does not believe ? 
Men may indeed be forced to the font but not to 
the faith. Man, endowed as he is with reason, 
must be instructed and led on by many teachings 
before he can perceive the truth of the faith. And 
especially must we seek the grace of the Almighty 
God on his behalf ; for powerless is the tongue of 
the teacher, if divine grace does not penetrate the 
heart of the hearer, as the Truth himself saith, 
' No man can come unto Me except the Father, 
who hath sent Me, draw him ;' and in another 
place, ' Xo man cometh unto the Father but by 
Me ;' and of the Holy Spirit, ' Unless a man be ' 
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God.' For what the priest, 
in a visible way, does for the body by the baptism 
of water, the Holy Ghost does in an invisible way, 
through faith, for the soul. There are, in baptism, 
three visible and three invisible things. The visi- 
ble : the priest, the body, and the water ; the in- 
visible : the spirit, the soul, and faith. These three 
visible things avail nothing by their outward opera- 
tion, if the three invisible things do not work within. 
The priest washes the body with water ; the Holy 
Ghost justifies the soul by faith." After saying 



254 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

something similar to the letter quoted above, and 
quoting the words of Christ (Matt, ix, 11) to the 
same effect, he adds : " What else are the old 
bottles than those who are hardened in the delu- 
sions of heathenism ? If, in the commencement 
of the preaching of the new faith, the sterner com- 
mandments are laid upon them, they fly off, and 
fall back into their old unbelief. The soul already 
long strengthened by faith, is far more capable of 
all good works, than one but just introduced into 
the new doctrine. The confession of Peter, after 
he had been filled with the new wine of the Spirit, 
before the emperor Nero in the imperial palace, is 
another thing to his answer to the maid in the 
house of Caiaphas. This Peter is an instance of 
human weakness — that, of the power of God. 
Christ reminded him of his high calling after His 
resurrection, in that he required from him a three- 
fold confession of his love, and desired him to feed 
the sheep which He had purchased with His own 
blood ; so that the good shepherd should acknow- 
ledge that suppliants should not always be chas- 
tised with harsh admonitions, but often their 
improvement sought through affectionate per- 
suasions." 

To Meganfried, an imperial Privy Counsellor, 
Alcuin wrote : " We read in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, that Paul and Barnabas journeyed to Jerusa- 
lem, to James and the other Apostles, in order to 
consult how best the Gospel could be preached to 
the heathen. And they resolved unanimously, 



ALCUIN ON- TRl'E MISSIONARY LABOURS. 255 

that nothing of a legal yoke should be laid upon 
them. The Apostle of the Gentiles even glories 
in living by the work of his hands. This he did, 
that he might entirely remove from preachers of 
the Gospel all opportunities of selfish profit, so 
that only those who were inflamed with the love 
of Christ, might proclaim the Word of God, as 
He himself prescribes to his disciples : ' Freely ye 
have received, freely give.' If the gentle yoke 
and light burden of Christ were preached to the 
stiff-necked Saxon tribes, with the same zeal with 
which tithes and severe penalties for the pettiest 
offences are laid on them, they would probably 
not have contended so fiercely against baptism, 
May there arise at length teachers of the faith, 
moulded after the model of the Apostles, — preach- 
ers, not robbers ; may they rely on the grace of 
Him who says, ' Take no scrip, neither shoes.' " 
(Luke x, 5.) So also he writes to Archbishop 
Arno : " Be a preacher of godliness, not a tithe 
collector. The tithes have well-nigh ruined the 
faith of the Saxons. Why must a yoke be laid 
on these rude tribes, which neither we nor our 
brethren have been able to bear ? Thus we trust 
that the souls of believers will be saved by faith 
in Christ." 



256 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

LINDGER AND WILLEHAD. 

We will mention here two men, who, in their la- 
bours amongst the Saxons, were able to keep them- 
selves from the errors pointed out by Alcuin, and 
were models of true missionaries. Amongst these 
is Lindger. He sprang from the tribe of the 
Frieslanders, and the germ of Christianity was 
early implanted in his soul. His grandfather was 
an eminent man amongst his people ; his name 
was Wursing, with the surname of Ado. Ado, 
even whilst yet a heathen, belonged to those of 
whom the Apostle Paul says, that "those who 
having not the law do by nature the things con- 
tained in the law, are a law unto themselves" — 
those who, although no further revelation be vouch- 
safed them, yet recognise in their conscience the 
voice of God. He took up the cause of the father- 
less and widow, and was a just judge. But by his 
zeal against all injustice, he drew on himself the 
enmity of Radbod, the heathen king of the Fries- 
landers, and was compelled to take refuge in the 
neighbouring Frankish empire. He afterwards 
became a zealous Christian, and supported the 
above-mentioned Willibrord, who was called Arch- 
bishop of Utrecht, in his labours amongst his coun- 
trymen. 

Lindger was a grandson of this pious man. Even 
as a child, tokens of his future destiny were ob- 
served in him. As soon as he could speak and 
walk, he used to collect bits of leather and bark, 



LINDGER AXD WILLEHAD. 25 7 

and make them into little books. When lie could 
find a black juice, lie would try to write with it, 
imitating grown-up people. And when he was 
asked what he had been doing, he would reply, he 
had been writing or reading. And when he was 
asked, "Who then has taught thee that?" he 
would reply, " God has taught it me." Thus he 
very early showed a great eagerness for knowledge, 
and himself begged his parents to intrust him to 
some man of God to be instructed. They placed 
him with that Abbot Gregory whom we have 
spoken of before. His love of learning subsequent- 
ly led him to York, to visit the most famous teacher 
of his times. Abbot Alcuin. Enriched with know- 
ledge and books, he returned to his native land, 
and was all the more esteemed in consequence by 
his old teacher, Abbot Gregory. After his death, 
Lindner laboured amidst many dangers and diffi- 
culties for the conversion of the Frieslanders and 
Saxons. He first founded a Christian Church on 
an island consecrated to the heathen god, Fosite, 
which then received the name of Helgoland, (Holy 
Land.) After the conquest of the Saxons, Minister 
became the permanent seat of his labours, and he 
was consecrated its bishop. His missionary zeal 
compelled him to seek a new sphere of activity, 
beset with greater dangers. He wished to go to 
the wild Normans, who were then the great terror 
of the Christian nations, and amongst whom he 
could rely on no support ; but Charlemagne would 

not suffer him to leave his present sphere. Even 
17 



258 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

j 

during the sickness which came on him in the year 
809, not long before his death, he vanquished his 
"bodily weakness, in order not to interrupt his spirit- 
ual labours. On the Sunday before the night of 
his death, he preached twice in two different 
churches of his diocese; in the morning in. the 
church of Cosfeld, at three o'clock in the afternoon 
in the church at Billerbeck. He died in the midst 
of his scholars gathered around his bed, on the 
night of the 26th March, 809. 

The second of these genuine missionaries, was 
Willehad, of Northumberland. The rumours of 
what other missionaries were doing amongst the 
Frieslanders and Saxons, incited him to follow their 
example. He laboured first in the regions where 
Boniface had found the martyr's death. Many 
were baptized by him, many of the people of rank 
intrusted their children to him to be educated. 
When, however, he entered on what is now the 
district of Groningen, where idolatry then prevailed, 
the fury of the heathen people was so excited by 
his aetivhy, that they were about to murder him. 
But, according to the counsel of one of the more 
moderate, the gods were first to be consulted by 
lot. And since even superstition must subserve the 
will of God, the guidance of the Almighty so or- 
dained it, that the lot fell for his preservation, and 
he was suffered to depart untouched. He then 
repaired to the district of Drenthe. His preaching 
had already found an opening there, when one of 
his followers, led by an indiscreet zeal, hastened to 



LixDGEE and willehad. 259 

destroy the idol-temples, instead of first banishing 
the idols from men's hearts by the power of Christ. 
This excited the rage of the heathen. They threw 
themselves on the missionaries, and "Willehad was 
covered with blows. One of the furious crowd 
struck him with a sword to kill him : but the blows 
only fell on the clasp with which a box of relics, 
which according to the custom of the times he 
carried about with him, was fastened around his 
neck — so he remained unhurt. The superstition 
of the age, instead of seeing in this the ever- present 
power of Him who has numbered all the hairs of 
our head, without whom not a sparrow can fall to 
the ground, and who can employ any means to 
bring about His holy purposes, imagined it to be 
a proof of the guardian power of relics. Even the 
heathen were moved by it to desist from their as- 
sault on Willehad, whom they believed protected 
by a higher power. When Charlemagne heard 
of Willehad's unflinching zeal in preaching the 
Gospel, he summoned him to himself, and appoint- 
ed him his sphere of labour in the district where 
the diocese of Bremen was afterwards formed. He 
was first to labour as a priest among the Friesland- 
ers and Saxons, and to perform all that belonged 
to the pastoral office, until a bishopric could be 
founded. His successful exertions were subse- 
quently interrupted by another insurrection of the 
heathen tribes. He believed himself called on to 
fulfil the command of his Lord, (Matt, x, 23,) and 
not to throw away his life in vain. In order to 



260 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

preserve his life longer to preach the Gospel, he 
availed himself of an opportunity which was offered 
him of night. He afterwards found a quiet place 
of refuge in the abbey founded by Willebrord at 
Afternach, (Epternach,) and there a gathering- 
place was formed for his followers, scattered by 
persecution and by war. There he passed two 
years, occupied in instructing, reading the Bible, 
and multiplying copies of it. 

At length, after the restoration of quiet amongst 
the vanquished Saxons, the conquerors were able to 
found the bishopric of Bremen, which Charlemagne 
had projected, and it was bestowed on Willehad. 
On one of his visitations, which the recent erection 
of his diocese obliged to be frequent, when in 789 
he arrived at Bloxem on the Weser, not far from 
Vegesack, he was seized with a raging fever, which 
threatened a speedy death. His scholars stood 
mourning around his bed. One of them, who was 
in the especial confidence of the bishop, expressed 
with tears the grief they all should feel if their 
spiritual father should be taken from them, and 
their anxiety for the orphan churches, scarcely yet 
gained over to Christianity. " 0, venerable father !" 
he said, " desert not so soon those whom you have 
so recently won to the Lord. Leave not the 
churches and the clergy, who have been gathered 
by your zeal, orphaned behind, lest the still feeble 
flock be exposed to the assaults of the wolves. 
Withdraw not your presence from us your poor 
scholars, lest we wander about as sheep having no 



ANSCHAR, APOSTLE OF THE NORTH. 261 

shepherd." Deeply touched, "Willehad replied : 
" My son, wish not that I should longer be with- 
held from looking on my Lord ; constrain me not 
longer to abide in this wearisome earthly life. I 
desire not longer to live here, and I fear not to die. 
I will only pray my God, whom I have ever loved 
with my whole heart, whom I have served with 
my whole soul, that He, in his grace, will give me 
such a reward for my labours as shall please Him. 
But the sheep which He committed to me, I con- 
fide to Him to keep ; for if I have been able to do 
anything good, I have done it by His power alone. 
His grace, of whose mercies the whole earth is full, 
will not fail you." 



ANSCHAR, APOSTLE OF THE NORTH. 

If we compare Boniface and Anschar with one 
another, we see again an example of two perfectly 
different individualities, which the Spirit has em- 
ployed as his instruments. In Boniface, more of 
the nature of Peter ; in Anschar, of John : in Boni- 
face, more fiery, penetrating power ; in Anschar, 
more quiet love. Boniface was more fitted to effect 
great things outwardly ; but to be unwearied in 
small things, to cherish in secret with persevering 
love the imperceptible seed, important as the first 
beginning of a new creation — this was the gift of 
Anschar. 

Anschar seems to have received his first religi- 



262 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

ous impressions in the period of early childhood, 
through the early influence of a pious mother, whom 

j he lost in his fifth year. When, after her death, 
his father sent him to school, he fell into the society 
of some wild boys, and was led away by them, so 

\ that those first pious impressions grew dimmer and 
dimmer. Still, unperceived by him, they lingered 
in the hidden depths of his soul. In a dream one 
night, this hidden feeling was called forth from the 
depths of his soul. " He seemed as if he found 
himself in a wretched place, covered with filth, 
from which he could scarcely find any exit. But 
close beside that place he seemed to see a pleasant 
path, and on this path a beautiful lady, richly 
adorned, and with her many other women in white 
robes, amongst whom was his mother. When he 
saw her he would have hastened to her, but he 
could not immediately get out of that filthy place. 
When the women came nearer, he seemed to hear 
from the one who stood at their head, richly adorn- 

| ed, who appeared to him to be the Virgin Mary, 
these words : ' My son, wilt thou come to thy 

I mother V And when he eagerly replied, that he 
longed to do so, she answered him again : ' If thou 
wilt come into our company, thou must keep thy- 
self from all naughtiness, and lead an earnest life/ " 
After this dream, a remarkable change took place 
in him, about which his companions could not 
wonder enough ; instead of playing, he busied him- 
self with reading, meditation, and many serious and 
useful things. Afterwards, when he had become 



AXSCHAR, APOSTLE OF THE NORTH. 263 

a monk in the Frankisli Abbey of Corbie, and de-, 
voted himself with his whole soul to the monastic 
life, he had another dream, in which was mirrored 
his life hidden with Christ in God. He saw him- 
self translated into the assembly of the blessed. 
All gazed towards the East, and praised with songs 
of thanksgiving Him who appeared hi the East, 
and their accordant praises filled the souls of the 
hearers with unutterable joy. In the East itself 
was seen a wonderful glow of light — a changeless 
ray, of surpassing brightness, from which the most 
glorious colours beamed. All the ranks of the 
saints who stood joyfully around on all sides, drew 
their joy from it. " It was such an infinite glow 
of light," says Anschar, "that I could see neither 
beoirmino; nor end of it, And as I looked around 
on all sides, I could only see its surface, not what 
dwelt hi the inmost depths of this light, 

" But I believed that He was there, whom even 
the angels desire to see ; for from Him went forth 
an unspeakable glory, by which the whole length 
and breadth of the Church of the saints were 
illumined. He himself was, as it were, all and 
all in Himself; He himself surrounded all from 
without ; He himself was inwardly amongst them. 
He satisfied all their wants, and was their guidinc; 
soul. He hovered over them from above, o-uidino* 
them ; He was the stay which sustained them from 
beneath ; sun and moon shone not there, neither 
heaven nor earth was seen. Yet it had no bright- 
ness which might have dazzled the eves of those 



264 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

who looked on it — it gave to the eye nothing but 
the most refreshing delight. The elders who sat 
there, seemed to be in Himself; for nothing was 
corporeal there, but all incorporeal, although the 
semblance of bodily things was there. It was 
something unutterable." When his two guides, 
Peter and John, had led him to this infinite light, 
there came to him from the majesty of God, which 
seemed imaged to him by this immeasurable and 
inapproachable light, a voice full of indescribable 
sweetness, and it said : " Go hence ; thou shalt re- 
turn to Me with the crown of martyrdom." At 
these words the whole multitude, which praised 
God on all sides, were silent, and with bowed 
heads, they worshipped God. But the face of Him 
from whom this voice came forth Anschar saw not. 
" After these words," he says, " I was sad, because 
I had to go back to the world. But the promise 
sustained me, that I should yet again return home 
from thence, so I journeyed back with these my 
guides. They said nothing to me on my return, 
as on my coming; but they looked upon me with 
such a look of tender love, as that with which a 
mother looks on her only son. And so I came 
back into the body. Both in going and coming 
there was no effort and no pause ; we were at once 
where we would be. And although I have said 
somewhat of these joys, I confess that my tongue 
can never utter what my soul feels. And my soul 
even feels it not as it was ; for it seemed to me to 
be that which the eye hath not seen, nor the ear 



ANSCHAR, APOSTLE OF THE NORTH. 265 

heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man 
to conceive." 

We have given this vision according to the de- 
scription of Anschar himself, because it gives us 
such deep insight into the God-filled life of a simple 
Christian soul. Tins vision made a powerful and 
inextinguishable impression on him. 

He was awakened by it to a new vigour of Chris- 
tian life, — and henceforth he was animated by the 
thought that he was to die the precious death of a 
witness for the faith. Two years later, he had 
another remarkable dream. He had retired to pray 
in a chapel into which he was wont frequently to 
retire foi quiet devotion, and when he arose from 
prayer, a man of a sublime countenance, clothed in 
Jewish garments, entered the door ; his eyes shone 
as if they were full of light. Anschar at once re- 
cognised him as the Lord Christ, and cast himself 
at his feet. As he lay thus on his face, the vision 
desired him to rise ; and as he then stood reverently 
before Him and was unable to look in his face, be- 
cause of the exceeding brightness of the light which 
beamed from His eyes, the Lord said to him in a 
gentle voice, " Confess thy sins, that thou may est 
be justified." Anschar replied, " Lord, what can I 
say to Thee ? Thou knowest all things, and no- 
thing is hidden from Thee." The Lord answered, 
" I indeed know all things, but I will that men 
should confess their sins, that they may receive 
forgiveness." After he had made confession of his 
sins, and then had knelt down to pray, the Lord 



\ 



266 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

said to him, " Fear not — I am He who blotteth out 
thy sins." With these words he vanished, and 
Anschar awoke, full of the joyful assurance that 
his sins were forgiven. 

He was subsequently sent with other monks from 
the Abbey of Corbie to the Abbey of Corvei, which 
had been planted as a colony from Corbie, for the 
diffusion of Christianity and Christian culture on 
the banks of the Weser, — to direct the school there 
and to preach to the people. Amongst the mani- 
fold difficulties with which this monastery had to 
contend in a wild and destitute district, opportuni- 
ties were afforded him for the exercise of Christian 
patience, and this was certainly a good preparation 
for his calling as a missionary. 

When Harold, king of Jutland, who had been 
baptized at Jugelheim, was returning in the year 
826, from a visit to his ally the Emperor Louis the 
Good, the emperor wished to send a zealous preacher 
of the Gospel with the returning Danes, for the 
confirming and strengthening of their own faith and 
for its further propagation. But it was difficult to 
find any one, who would not be withheld by the 
frightful tales of the barbarism of these Northmen, 
and the cruel character of their idolatry. 

Only Wale, Abbot of Corbie, to which Anschar 
had then returned, declared to the emperor, that 
he knew a man of fervent zeal for the cause of God, 
who even longed to die for it. Anschar was sum- 
moned, and was instantly ready to travel to Den- 
mark with Kino- Harold. Whilst his abbot was 



AXSCHAR, APOSTLE OF THE XORTH. 267 

visiting the court, Anschar prepared himself in the 
solitude of a vineyard, by reading the Scriptures 
and prayer, for his high vocation. People saw him 
become even more earnest and abstracted, so that 
those who could not see into his heart, might have 
imagined that he dreaded the difficulties and dan- 
gers before him and repented of his decision. But 
with him it merely arose from a sense of the magni- 
tude and difficulty of the calling, which made him 
serious, because he did not begin the work in the 
pride of vain human self-reliance, but with fear and 
trembling, in reliance on God ; fully conscious of 
his own unworthiness and impotence, he confided 
in the power of God alone, and appearing more 
quiet and retiring than usual in the eyes of man, 
he had turned his whole heart to God. When 
another monk, called Antbert, who wished to join 
him as a companion in his missionary labours, asked 
him if he remained steadfast to his purpose, he re- 
plied : " When I was asked if I would go amongst 
the heathen for the name of God, to preach the 
Gospel, I dared not shrink from such a call. Yea, 
with all my strength, I desire to go thither, and no 
man will make me waver in this purpose." 

The most distinguished traits in the character of 
Anschar are his unwearying patience, his winning 
love, and his steadfastness of faith when dangers 
and hinderances opposed him. These his character- 
istic qualities were tested in many ways, from his 
first entrance on this vocation. The Danes whom 
he accompanied on their voyage to their native land, 



268 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

seem to have been at that time still strange to the 
essence of Christianity. Anschar met with rough 
treatment at their hands, until, in passing through 
Cologne, (whence they went down the Rhine to 
Holland, in order to cross thence to Denmark by 
sea,) Hadelbod, bishop of that city, presented him 
with a convenient vessel. This induced King Harold 
to join him, and Anschar succeeded by the power 
of love in vanquishing the barbarity of the Danes. 

King Harold, after this, was banished from his 
kingdom. Anschar was able to effect nothing 
more than to buy some native lads, in order to 
educate them for teachers of their countrymen, 
and to found a small school in Schleswig, — the 
first Christian institution in those parts. His com- 
panion Antberfc was taken from him by an illness 
which compelled his return to his native land. But 
those unfavourable circumstances could not make 
him waver, — a proof how free he was from self; 
since the more self-love is mingled with zeal flow- 
ing from the purest source, the more restless and 
impatient men are to see the fruit of their labours. 
The purer zeal is from the admixture of self, the 
more it will carry on the work of God, in the con- 
sciousness that neither is he that planteth anything, 
nor he that watereth, but that it is God who giveth 
the increase ; leaving it to Him to give the increase 
when and how He will. 

In this unfavourable situation, the call came to 
him to a new sphere of missionary labours in 
Sweden, and he at once obeyed it, convinced that 



ANSCHAR, APOSTLE OF THE NORTH. 269 

it was from God. As an ambassador of the Em- 
peror Louis the Good, he went to that country in 
a merchant-ship, with presents from the Emperor 
to the King of Sweden. They were captured by 
pirates and lost everything. It was with difficulty 
that they could reach the shore and save their 
lives. Many of Anschar's companions wished to 
return ; but he himself declared that " what should 
befall him was* in the hand of God ; but he was 
resolved not to return until he found out whether 
it was the will of God that the Gospel should 
then be preached there." 

Subsequently, he himself was surprised by the 
heathen Normans in Hamburg, the seat of his 
bishopric ; he lost everything, and could hardly 
save himself. He was compelled to seek a place 
of refuge on the estates of a pious and noble 
widow in Holstein. But as soon as he could re- 
store security and quiet to his own diocese, it was 
immediately his aim once more to extend the sphere 
of his activity. The most unfavourable prospects, 
on account of the enmity of Horik, then the reign- 
ing sovereign in Denmark, who had taken an active 
share in those hostile devastations of the diocese 
of Hamburg, could not restrain him. He knew 
the almighty power of love, he prayed continually 
for the conversion and salvation of those who 
threatened destruction to him and all Christians 
with fire and sword, that God would not lay to 
their charge the sins which they committed in their 
ignorance. He allowed himself to be employed 



270 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

by King Louis of Germany on political embassies 
to King Horik, he made him presents, by his love 
he won his heart, and Horik at last placed such 
reliance on Anschar, that he would only treat with 
Germany through him. This attachment of the 
King to life person, he was then able to use, in 
order to effect something for the Christian Church. 
He procured from him permission to erect a church 
in the city of Schleswig, which as a place of trade 
was well fitted for the diffusion of Christianity 
farther into the country. He also received from 
this king a letter of recommendation to the Swe- 
dish king Olof. 

Horik wrote to him, that " he had never in his 
life seen such a man, and had never found such 
fidelity in any man, and because he had found such 
goodness in him, he had allowed him to do what 
he liked with regard to Christianity in his domin- 
ions, and he hoped therefore that King Olof would 
permit him. to preach the Gospel in his kingdom, 
for he would certainly do nothing but what was 
just and good." 

When Anschar arrived in Sweden, he found the 
heathen there in a state of great excitement against 
the strange religion. His friends advised him only 
to employ the presents he had brought with him 
to rescue his life from the impending danger. But 
Anschar replied : " To rescue my life I will bestow 
nothing here ; for if the Lord has so ordered it, I 
am prepared to suffer torture here for his name's 
sake, and even death." He invited the King to a 



AXSCHAR, APOSTLE OF THE NORTH. 271 

feast, gave him presents, and gained his heart, be- 
cause he knew how to become all things to all 
men ; and afterwards the Lord helped him on the 
way which His infinite wisdom had appointed. 

Anschar experienced in his laborious and perilous 
life, many remarkable answers to prayer. This 
became known, and many sick people came from a 
distance to be cured by his prayers. 

But he himself rejected the fame of a worker 
of miracles, saying, " If I were worthy, I would 
ask one miracle of my God, that he would make of 
me by his grace a holy man" 

When, after the labours of four-and-thirty years, 
he was hastening to his dissolution, amidst the suf- 
ferings of a painful sickness, he would often say 
with Job : " Have we received good at the hand 
of the Lord, and shall we not also receive evil ?" ? 
After receiving the Holy Supper, he raised his 
hands to heaven, and prayed, that the grace of 
God might pardon all who in any way had injured 
him. Then he frequently repeated the words : 
u Lord, in thy goodness remember me, for thy 
mercies' sake. Be merciful to me, a sinner ; for 
into thy hands I commend my spirit." And when, 
gazing towards heaven, he had commended his 
spirit to the grace of God, he left this world. It 
was in the year 865. 



272 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

THE MARTYR ADALBERT IN PRUSSIA. 

Adalbert was born of a noble family in Prague, 
in the year 956. He was educated in Magdeburg, 
and thence returned to bis native land. In tbe 
year 983 be was elected bisbop of his native city. 
Much heathen barbarism then prevailed amongst 
his countrymen ; and Adalbert, who could not 
tolerate a heathen life, as united to an outward con- 
fession of Christ, had on this account to endure 
many a hard conflict. He did not lack glowing 
zeal and steadfastness ; but perhaps he did some- 
times fail in discretion and that unwearying pa- 
tience, which must indeed have been exposed to 
hard trials amongst these wild tribes, who would 
submit to no yoke. 

He, therefore, more than once excommunicated 
this flock, who would not follow him as their shep- 
herd, nor give up their lawless ways. He wished 
to take refuge in a monastic life, and visited the 
venerable JSTilus in Italy — a man who shone as a 
light in the darkness, whose life and labours we 
will look at more closely by-and-by. But he was 
again constrained to return to his wild flock, to be 
driven from it a second time. 

When he took leave of his people for the third 
time, — impelled by a fervent zeal to labour for the 
propagation of Christianity, — he repaired to Hun- 
gary, where the seed of faith had recently begun 
to germinate. 

He was very gladly received by the king Geisa, 



ADALBERT IN PRUSSIA. 2*13 

who, influenced by his wife, suffered himself to be 
baptized ; but Adalbert could get little attention to 
his exhortations from either of them. Meantime, 
it may have been the impression of his words and 
conduct which produced so great an effect on the 
heart of their son, the boy Stephen, who after- 
wards accomplished so much towards the founda- 
tion of the Christian Church in Hungary. 

His impatience, however, soon drove him away 
from Hungary. He resolved to «go where no mis- 
sionary had yet penetrated — to the heathens in 
Prussia. Duke Boleslad I., of Poland, to whom 
he applied, gave him a ship, and thirty soldiers for 
an escort. 

So he proceeded to Dantzig, then the frontier 
town of Prussia, towards Poland. Here he com- 
menced his labours, and succeeded in baptizing 
many. Then he left that neighbourhood in order 
to proceed to the opposite shore. Having landed 
there, he sent back the ship and the men. He 
wished to commit himself wholly to the protection 
of his God, — as a messenger of peace, not to come 
under the guardianship of human might, — and also 
to avoid anything which might excite suspicion 
amongst the heathen. 

He only retained with him the priest Benedict, 

and his pupil Gaudentius. They landed at the 

Frische Haff, and proceeded in a small skiff to an 

island formed by the Pregel at its mouth. But the 

inhabitants came with cudgels to drive them away, 

and one of them gave Adalbert such a violent blow 
18 



274 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

with the rudder, as to knock the Psalter from which 
he was singing out of his hand, and to throw him 
on the ground. When he recovered himself, his 
first words were, "Lord, I thank thee, that thou 
hast counted me worthy to suffer at least one blow 
for my crucified Saviour. " On Saturday, they 
crossed to the opposite bank of the Pregel, to the 
coast of Samland. The owner of the land, whom 
they found there, led them to his village, and a 
great crowd of people collected around them. When 
Adalbert was asked who he was, and with what ob- 
ject he came, after telling them who he was, and 
whence he came, he declared to them in a gentle tone : 
"For the sake of your salvation I am come hither, 
that ye may abandon your deaf and dumb idols, 
and acknowledge your Creator, beside whom there 
is no God, that, believing in his name, ye may re- 
ceive everlasting life, and be made partakers, in an 
imperishable existence, of heavenly joy." The 
heathens gnashed their teeth with fury as they 
heard these words, and striking their staves on the 
ground, threatened him with their clubs. He 
might esteem it a great thing, they told him, that 
he had reached so far unhurt, and that only by a 
speedy departure he could save his life. They 
saw that all in that kingdom had one law and one 
way of life ; and that as subject to another and an 
unknown law, if they did not depart that night, 
they would be beheaded the next day. They were 
placed in a ship, were compelled immediately to 
push off from the coast, and remained five days in 



ADALBERT IN PRUSSIA. 2*7 5 

a village to which they came. When they awoke 
on the last day, Gaudentius related to his spiritual 
father a dream which he had had in the night. 
" I saw," he said, " in the midst of the altar, a 
golden chalice half full of wine. No one watched 
beside it. As I was about to drink of the wine, 
the minister of the altar forbade me, saying, that 
he could not permit me nor any other man to do 
so, for the wine was to be kept for the spiritual 
refreshment of the bishop on the morrow." 

" My son," observed Adalbert, who believed he 
saw in this a token of the martyr's crown destined 
for him, "God bless this vision ; yet we may not 
trust to a dream which may delude us." At day- 
break they set forth on their journey, and they 
went joyfully through thick forests singing and 
calling on the Lord Christ, Song shortened the 
way. Towards midday they came to a place 
cleared for fields. Here Gaudentius celebrated 
the mass, Adalbert partook of the holy supper; 
then they sat down on the turf, and refreshed 
themselves with some of the provisions which they 
had brought with them. After Adalbert had con- 
cluded the meal by repeating a verse from the 
Bible, and chanting a psalm, he arose, and when 
he had gone a little way he sat down again. 
Weary with walking, he and his companions fell 
into a deep sleep ; but they were awakened in a 
terrible way. It was the raging of a wild band 
of heathen that aroused them. They were all 
thrown into chains. Adalbert continued in unruf- 



276 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

fled peace of soul, and said to his companions : 
" My brethren, be not troubled ; ye know that we 
suffer this for the name of the Lord, whose might 
is above all might, whose beauty surpasses all 
beauty, whose grace is unspeakable. What is 
there more beautiful than to yield up sweet life 
for our sweetest Jesus ?" Thereupon a priest 
stepped forth from the furious crowd, and with all 
his force cast his spear into the breast of the man of 
. God, and then all the rest let loose their fury on 
him. Dying, he lifted up his hands to heaven, 
and prayed to the Lord for his own and his perse- 
cutors' salvation : this happened on the 23d of 
April, in the year 997. 

The century of Adalbert was not rich in mes- 
sengers of the faith. Only when the Church is 
rich within in the gifts of the Spirit, can the Divine 
fulness stream forth around ; and the water of life, 
which fertilizes the heathen world, will flow back 
in blessing to the places from which it sprang. 
But where spiritual life is lacking, no beneficial in- 
fluence can issue thence to those without. If the 
salt have lost its savour, nothing can be salted 
with it. This holds good as to the tenth century, 
in which the seeds of Christianity, already sown, 
were menaced with destruction by the thorns and 
thistles of sensual barbarism. Men were needed 
then who would once more arise as missionaries 
amongst the degenerate natives, who named them- 
selves by the name of Christ, but amongst whom 
little of his spirit and life were to be found, — men 



THE MONK NILUS. 2 77 

zohose mission should be from within. Such a man 
there was in the country where barbarism and 
superstition and ignorance had gained the firmest 
hold, — Nilus, the man of God, whom we will there- 
fore introduce here after the men whose mission 
was from without. 



THE MONK NILUS. 

Nilus was born at Rossano, in Calabria, in the ! 
year 910, of an old Greek family. His pious 
parents, to whom only one child, a daughter, had \ 
been given, besought the Lord that he would give / 
them a son. This prayer was heard, and that son 
was Nilus. They carried the child to the church, 
and consecrated him to the service of God. On 
that account, also, they gave him the name of 
Nilus, after a venerated monk of the fifth century, 
distinguished by his spirit of vital Christianity, and 
to whose example the youth who bore his name 
subsequently conformed. The seed which his pious 
parents sowed in his childish heart, had at first the 
effect of preserving him from the corruptions of j 
the age. But as he lost his parents early, he grew 
up under the care of his married sister, who was 
also a pious woman. From his childhood he used 
to read the biographies of the old venerated monks, 
Antony, Hilarion, etc. ; and thus a spirit of deep, 
earnest piety was awakened in him, which made 
him from the first fly the corrupt manners preva- 



2*78 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

lent in the houses of the great, and avoid amulets 
and magic formularies, as well as other kinds of 
superstition then in vogue. 

When, afterwards, a reaction against the de- 
pravity of morals around, drove him into so much 
the more stern an asceticism, he had many conflicts 
to undergo with himself, and by these many op- 
portunities were given him of searching into the 
depths of his own heart. Upon his holiest sea- 
sons tempting thoughts would intrude themselves — 
temptations to spiritual pride, which most naturally 
mingle with an ascetic striving after sanctification 
by self-conquest, and temptations to sensuality. 
Often, whilst he was praying and singing in the 
church, such thoughts as these would arise within 
him : " Look towards the altar : perchance thou 
mayst see an angel there, or a flame of fire, or the 
Holy Ghost, as many have done before." And 
had he given himself up to such thoughts, he 
might easily have fallen into the most perilous self- 
deceptions and fanaticism; and the Divine life in 
him, as in many others who could not overcome 
such temptations, might have been crushed by 
pride and vanity. The angels of darkness, who 
know how to clothe themselves as angels of light, 
would have possessed themselves of his soul, and 
bound it in their fetters. It was the temptation 
which his Saviour had passed through before him, 
to make bread of the stones of the wilderness, to 
cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. 
The faithful disciple followed his example. Nothing 



THE MONK NILTJS. 2 7 9 

is so fitted to quencli all the fiery darts of the 
wicked one, as the discretion of humility, the work- 
ing out our salvation with fear and trembling. This 
gives the sober mind, which is able to resist all the 
clamour of self-conceit. The more such tempta- 
tions to pride pressed on Nilus, the more he hum- 
bled himself. He closed his eyes, in order not to 
see such visions as were promised him, and he con- 
tended so with himself in penitence and tears, that 
drops of sweat fell from him to the ground. Once, 
when he was occupied with writing, reading, and 
siDgino' in St. Peter's church at Rome, and was as- 
sailed by such temptations, he cast himself before 
the altar and said to the Saviour : " Lord, thou 
knowest that I am weak — have compassion on me, 
and lighten these conflicts which make me despair 
of my life." Then, as he fell asleep, this vision 
came to him. He saw before him Christ hano-ino- 
on the cross, only separated from him by a very 
thin white veil. He cried to Him : " Lord, have 
mercy on me, and bless thy servant." Then the 
Lord stretched his right hand over him three times 
from the cross. Nilus awoke, and was delivered 
from all his temptations. 

In that age, when many of those who opposed 
the prevailing corruptions sought to be justified by 
their own works, he felt constrained all the more 
to yield himself up entirely to the Saviour, and to 
rely on him alone. The scholar of Nilus who re- 
lates this from his life, adds : What much fasting 
and watching could not accomplish, was effected 



280 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

by this humbling of himself before the Lord, and 
by the confession of his own impotence. 

Nilus was frequently visited by men of all ranks, 
the noblest both amongst the clergy and the laity, 
and they used to lay many questions before him. 
He made use of every such opportunity to direct 
people's attention to the one thing needful ; to warn 
them against a false confidence in a mere external 
Christianity, dead faith, and outward works ; and to 
turn them from fruitless subtleties to that which 
was necessary for the salvation of their souls. 
Once, when he saw the archbishop with an im- 
perial privy- councillor, many priests, and govern- 
ment-officers, and several of the congregation 
coming towards him, he said : " See, they are 
coming again, to enter into empty and idle talk 
with me. But, my Lord Jesus Christ, deliver us 
out of the snares of Satan, and grant us to think, 
to speak, and to do what is w T ell-pleasing unto 
thee." And when he had so prayed, he opened 
the book which he had in his hand, — a biography 
of saintly men, — and marked the first passage 
which pleased him. When his visitors had saluted 
him and seated themselves, he gave the privy- 
councillor the book to read where he had marked 
it, and he read the words in which it was said, 
" that only one among thousands should be saved." 

When the rest heard that, they were seized with 
horror, and exclaimed, " God forbid that it should 
be so ; that is not true ; whoever said this is a 
heretic. Thus we should in vain have been bap- 



THE MONK NILUS. 281 

tized; in vain worship the Crucified; in vain par- 
take of the Holy Supper; in vain be called Chris- 
tians." As they said these things, and neither the 
archbishop nor the privy- councillor said anything 
to them, Nilus observed to them, in a gentle tone : 
" What, then, if I show you that the ancient fa- 
thers — that Chrysostom, Basil, the Evangelists, 
and the Apostle Paul — say the same ? what will 
vou then have to brino- against it, since, on account 
of your evil lives, ye call words spoken by the 
Holy Ghost lies ? But I say to you, my brethren, 
that all these things which you have mentioned 
will obtain you no acceptance with God." And, 
in order to remind them that their abiding by a 
religion in which they had been educated, or by a 
confession for which they had made no sacrifice, or 
self-denial, was of no value, he added : " "What 
idols, or what heresy have you left, in order to 
turn to the Lord Christ?" Wishing still further 
to impress on them that orthodoxy without a life 
corresponding to the faith could avail nothing, he 
said : "If one of you were to venture to give him- 
self out to be a heretic, and so were to enter any 
town, would he not be stoned by every one ? Be 
assured that your not being heretics will not save 
you. If you do not reform your lives, and reform 
them thoroughly, no man can save you from de- 
struction." As he said these words, all were con- 
founded — they sighed deeply, and said : " Woe to 
us, sinners ; to us, miserable men." A captain of 
the imperial guard, named Nicholas, then began 



282 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

to speak, endeavouring to show that the Gospel, 
after all, was not so very strict : " Why, father, 
does the Gospel say that l Whoever shall give a 
cup of cold water to a poor man shall by no means 
lose his reward?' ' Nilus replied: " This is said 
to those who have nothing ; that no poor man may 
be able to make the excuse, ' I have no wood to 
warm the water.' But what will ye do who rob 
the poor even of the cup of cold water ?" Then 
a man of rank, who had led an unchaste life, and 
yet would gladly have felt safe in his sins, said : 
" I would know, holy father, if the wonderful 
Solomon was saved at last, or not ?" Nilus, who 
penetrated his object, answered : "I would know 
of you, whether you will be saved or lost? for 
what avails it you or me whether Solomon was 
lost or saved, since it is said to us, ' If a man look 
at a woman, to lust after her, he has already com- 
mitted adultery,' and ' If any man defile the tem- 
ple of God, him will God destroy.'* Yet who 
can assert of Solomon — of whom it is nowhere said 
in the Holy Scriptures, as of Manasseh, that he 
repented of his sins — that he was saved ?" There- 
upon one of the priests, wishing to turn the con- 
versation, proposed the question, of what kind the 
tree was, of which Adam ate in Paradise, for which 
he was condemned ? Nilus replied : " A wild 

° These words have indeed another application in their 
proper connexion, (1 Cor. iii, 17 ;) but they may justly 
be applied to him, who, by a disordered life, desecrates 
and ruins the temple of Grocl. 



THE MONK NILUS. 283 

apple-tree." When every one laughed at this, he 
said to them, " Why do you laugh ? such a ques- 
tion merits such an answer. Moses has not further 
described that tree, and how can we reveal what 
the Scriptures have hidden ? You do not trouble 
yourselves to inquire how you were created ; how 
you, like Adam, were placed in Paradise ; what 
the command was, or rather, what the command- 
ments were, which you have broken, and on ac- 
count of which you too have been banished from 
Paradise — or, more correctly — from the kingdom 
of God ; and how you can be restored to your 
original honour and glory — and you seek to know 
the name of a tree, which was a tree like other 
trees. Although, even if you could know that, you 
would not know what the root, leaves, and bark 
of the tree were like ; nor whether it were a small 
or a large tree. And who can describe that which 
no eye has seen ?" 

AVhen, on the ne^t day, he was visiting a neigh- 
bouring castle, he met a Jew whom he had known 
from his youth, and who was much esteemed as a 
physician. The Jew said to him : I have heard 
much of thy austerities and abstinences, and, as I 
know thy constitution, I have often wondered that 
thou hast not fallen a victim to epilepsy. I will, 
however, now give thee a remedy, adapted to thy 
constitution, which shall suffice for every day of 
thy life, and enable thee to fear no sickness." 
Xilus replied to this, without troubling himself 
further to inquire about such an universal remedy : 



284 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

" One of you, a Hebrew, has said, ' It is good to 
trust in the Lord, and to put no confidence in man.' 
(Psa. cxviii, 8.) Since we, therefore, rely on our 
physician, our God and Lord Jesus Christ, we need 
not thy medicines." 

It happened that a viceroy, sent from Constanti- 
nople, who was placed over all the western pro- 
vinces of the Greek empire, had excited general 
discontent by an enterprise which he deemed bene- 
ficial, but which had proved burdensome to many. 
The inhabitants of the district of Rossano suffered 
themselves, in a moment of irritation, to be led 
into terrible deeds of violence. They repented 
afterwards, and knew not what to do, as they had 
reason to fear a severe revenge from the viceroy. 
In their desperation, they had already formed the 
project of still further increasing the evil, by rais- 
ing a general insurrection against the Greek em- 
pire, to which they were subject. Then they 
turned their eyes to Nilus, and the remembrance 
of him inspired hope into their souls. They in- 
trusted themselves to his mediation. 

As soon as the warm-hearted man, who could 
not refuse his sympathy even to the guilty, was 
appealed to by them, he hastened to them. When 
he arrived, he made use of what had happened, to 
give them suitable exhortations, and then he ad- 
vised the citizens no longer to close their gates 
against the viceroy, whose vengeance they dreaded, 
but at once to surrender to him. Full of fury, he 
entered the city ; and while the members of the 



THE MONK NILUS. 285 

magistracy and the priesthood, as well as all be- 
sides, seized with terror, were not able to say a 
word, Nilus appeared, with the greatest compo- 
sure, before the governor, and spoke to him with 
disinterested freedom. His venerable appearance 
softened the rage of the governor, and he left to 
him to decide on the punishment to be awarded to 
the insurgents. Nilus on this said, " Truly, it is a 
heavy crime that they have committed. If it were 
the deed of only a few men of influence, the de- 
served punishment might fall on them alone. But 
now the whole multitude shares in the guilt. Will 
you pass sentence of death against the whole of 
the inhabitants, and make so great a place empty 
of men ?" The viceroy replied : " Nay, we will 
shed no blood ; but we will confiscate their goods 
to enrich the imperial treasury, that they may there- 
by be brought to then senses, and may never ven- 
ture anvthino- of the kind ao-ain." " And what will 
it profit you," said Nilus, "if you enrich the impe- 
rial treasury, but lose your own soul ? How can 
the Heavenly King forgive you your trespasses, if 
you, who to-day live and to-morrow are no more, 
forgive not those who have trespassed against 
you?" He engaged, as the viceroy thought that 
he could not grant a pardon without the will of 
the emperor, himself to write the emperor. And 
he succeeded in procuring the pardon. After 
having thus restored order and peace, he re- 
turned to the quiet of his cell, which he only left 
reluctantlv, at the call of love, and thanked God 



286 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

that He had given him grace to accomplish such 
things. 

He was often thus compelled to abandon the 
quiet holy calm of a life devoted to prayer and con- 
templation, to descend from his height to the need 
of men, to protect those who were sore oppressed 
by the might of tyrants who feared not God. In 
most inclement weather, in heat and in cold, he 
would, on these accounts, take long journeys alone 
on foot. Wet to the skin, or with benumbed hands 
and feet, or burned by the sun, weary, faint with 
hunger and thirst, would he often arrive at the goal 
of his journey ; but love made all easy to him. 

Once a chamberlain, who stood in high honour at 
Constantinople, came to the neighbouring castle, 
and expressed his amazement that Nilus did not 
come, with the other abbots, to pay him his re- 
spects. Even the first bishop of the empire, the 
patriarch, would, he thought, have shown him more 
respect. But those who knew Nilus better, an- 
swered him, that " this old man was no patriarch, 
yet he feared neither the patriarch nor even the 
emperor, whom all fear. He lives there on the 
mountain with a few monks, and needs no assist- 
ance from any man." Still more amazed at this 
account, the chamberlain wrote Nilus a letter, in 
which he entreated him either not to hide himself 
when he should come to visit him, or himself to 
visit the castle to bless him and his. Partly moved 
by his entreaties, and partly in the hope of obtain- 
ing a more favourable hearing when he had to 



THE MONK NILUS. 287 

plead with him in behalf of the poor, Kiliis ac- 
cepted the invitation. The chamberlain was filled 
with reverence when he saw him. He immediately 
caused a book of the Gospels to be brought, in or- 
der to swear upon it, to fulfil whatever he should 
promise him. But as he began to do this, Nilus 
pointed out to him what Christ says, in the Sermon 
on the Mount, about swearing, and said : " Why 
would you give me reason to mistrust your words, 
and why, at the commencement of our intercourse, 
do you begin by transgressing the Word of the 
Lord ? For every one who is easily ready to swear, 
will be also easily ready to say what is false." The 
scholar of JSTilus says of him : "I am persuaded, 
that if all who live under the sun, were to come to 
him to ask suitable counsel of him, he would not 
fail to give to every one what was most profitable 
for them ; for his counsel was as the counsel of 
God, full of wisdom, and most salutary. If men 
followed him, he led them to a glorious issue; if 
they despised him, peril arose thence to the soul, 
and hurt to the body ; and I could relate many in- 
stances of this, were it not that the narrative would 
never end." 

A countrvman of Mus, Philaofathos, or John 
Bishop of Piacenza, who was apt to meddle to his 
own hurt with political affairs, had entered into an 
alliance with the Roman usurper Crescentius, and 
had been made Pope by him after the expulsion of 
Gregory V. Nilus felt himself constrained to warn 
him by a letter against the consequences of his am- 



288 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

bition. He exhorted him to renounce those worldly 
honours which he had already enjoyed to satiety, 
and to retire from the world. In the year 988 
Gregory was forcibly restored by the Emperor 
Otho III., and a barbarous revenge taken on the 
bishop. After his eyes had been put out and his 
nose and tongue cut off, he was thrown into prison. 
When Nilus, who was then eighty-eight years old, 
heard this in his convent at Gaeta, he hastened to 
Rome, at a fast-time, when he was ever most un- 
willing to be disturbed in his devotions and pen- 
ances, and although he was ill. He entreated the 
Emperor to give the Archbishop to him, that they 
might thenceforth live together, and together do 
penance for their sins. The Emperor promised to 
do so. But when after this the archbishop was 
again exposed to public shame, Mlus declared to 
the Pope and the Emperor that they offended not 
against him but against God, for whose sake they 
had promised to pardon the wretched man. And 
as they had shown no mercy to the unfortunate 
man whom the Heavenly Father had placed in their 
power, so they had no mercy to expect for their 
sins from him. The young Emperor, accustomed 
to be nattered by all, was compelled to hear the 
voice of truth from the mouth of the poor monk. 
When the Emperor afterwards asked him what fa- 
vour he would request of him, he replied, "I re- 
quest nothing from you but that you will not trifle 
away the salvation of your soul ; for although you 
are emperor, you must die like another man, ap- 



THE MONK NILUS. 289 

pear before the judgment-seat of God and render 
an account of your good and evil deeds." The 
Emperor shed tears, laid down his crown, and be- 
sought Xilus to bless him. 

The prayers of jS"ilus were frequently besought 
on behalf of the sick, or of those who suffered from 
mental diseases, (regarded in those days as pos- 
sessed by evil spirits,) either by themselves or their 
relations. But he perceived the snare which threat- 
ened him, and rejected the fame of a worker of 
miracles. Once a man who held a distino-uished 
military appointment, brought his heavily- afflicted 
son to him for this purpose. JSTilus replied to his 
entreaties : " Believe me, my friend, I have never 

asked God to give me the gifts of miraculous heal- 
th o 

ing, or the power to cast out evil spirits. May I 
but attain forgiveness of my own numerous sins, 
and deliverance from the evil thoughts which dis- 
turb me ! Do thou rather pray for me, that I may 
be delivered from many evil spirits. For thy son 
has only one evil spirit, and that involuntarily ; and 
perchance this may tend to the salvation of his soul, 
either as a purification from former sins, or as a 
preservation against others." When, however, the 
son was restored to health, and the father wished 
to thank Xilus for his mediation, he replied : " God 
has healed thy son ; I have done nothing towards 
it." The scholar who has described the life of 
ISTilus, and who in those words manifests the spirit 
of his master, says : "I will not relate great mar- 
vels of him, bv which the ears of the childish and 
19 



290 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

unbelieving might be astonished ; but I will relate 
his toils and labours, for I know that in such things 
as these the great Apostle gloried." 

Christian communion between those who be- 
longed to the Greek, and those who belonged to 
the Latin Church, was at that time disturbed by 
controversies on particular ecclesiastical customs, 
usages, and doctrines, in which there was a variation. 
But Nilus was too deeply grounded in the Divine 
word, not to prize the oneness in Christ higher 
than all such variations ; and the genuine spirit of 
Christian love raised him above all those divisions. 
He was regarded with equal veneration by the 
members of both Churches. Thus the abbot and 
monks of the famous abbey of Monte Cassino, 
begged him to celebrate the mass in their church 
in his native language, in order, as they said, that 
God might be all in all, (that they might all together 
honour God in different tongues and forms — that 
all other differences might be subordinate to the 
unity of the common Divine life.) At first Nilus 
refused this offer, saying : " How can we, (the 
Greeks,) who, on account of our sins, have been 
humbled in all lands, sing the Lord's song in a 
strange land?" At length, however, he yielded, 
in the hope of thus promoting Christian fellowship. 
Divine service being concluded, the differences be- 
tween the two Churches became the subject of 
conversation. Amongst these was the fact of the 
Roman Church ordaining a fast on Saturday, which 
the Greek did not. J^ilus replied to the questions 



THE MONK NILUS. 291 

addressed to him on this subject in the words of 
the Apostle Paul : " Let not him that eateth despise 
him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth 
not judge him that eateth ; for God hath received 
him. Who art thou that judgest thy brother ? 
"Whether, therefore, we eat, or whether we fast, 
may we do all to the glory of God." Then, after 
explaining the grounds on which the Greeks were 
wont not to fast on the Saturday, he added : "But 
let us abstain from idle discourses, for fasting is no 
sin; let us say, with the Apostle, (1 Cor. viii, 8:) 
"Meat commendeth us not to God." If the poor 
Jews would only worship the Crucified as their 
Lord, even though they should fast on Sundays, it 
would not distress me." Thereupon the rest said 
to him: "Is it no sin to fast on Saturday?" He 
answered them, " That the outward demeanour 
availed nothing:: but the toning of the heart to 
God. All which was done for God's sake was 
good." And he endeavoured to show them how 
people might differ in outward observances by rea- 
son of then different points of view, and yet agree 
thoroughly in the essentials of the faith. 

Nilus had heard that the lord of Gaeta intended 
after his death to bring his bones into the city, and 
lay them there ; believing that the relics of the holy 
man would be a protection to the city. But his 
humility shrank from the thought, that such vene- 
ration as was then paid to the saints should be paid 
to him ; rather let no man know where he was 
buried. He took leave of his sorrowful scholars 



292 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

and friends, saying to them : " Mourn not, my 
fathers and brethren, for I go hence to prepare a 
place and a convent, where I will gather all my 
brethren and my scattered children together, " He 
probably meant the rest of heaven, in which he 
trusted once more to meet those whom he loved. 
Then he got on his horse and took the road to 
Rome. When he arrived at Frascati, he went into 
a small convent dedicated to St. Agatha, saying : 
" This is my resting-place for ever." Many of his 
friends, and many of the great men of Rome, en- 
treated him to come to the metropolis, if it were 
only to perform his devotions at the tombs of the two 
chief Apostles. He answered them : " Whosoever 
has faith, even as a grain of mustard-seed, can cele- 
brate here also the commemoration of those two 
Apostles. I came to this insignificant place for no 
other reason except to die here." 

Gregory, the proprietor of the place where Nilus 
had retired to, a tyrannical man of harsh temper, 
was much moved when he heard that a man so 
venerated had repaired thither. He came to him, 
fell at his feet, and said : " thou servant of the 
most high God, I am indeed not worthy, on account 
of my many sins, that thou shouldst come under 
my roof. But since, after the example of thy Mas- 
ter and Lord, thou hast preferred the sinner to the 
righteous, see, thou mayst do what thou wilt with 
my house and castle, and all my possessions, even 
all that is before thine eyes. If thou desirest any- 
thing, only tell me what." Nilus replied : " The 



THE MONK NILUS. 293 

Lord bless thee and thine, thy whole house and all 
this place. But give to me and mine only a small 
piece of land from thy territories, that we may find 
a resting-place there, and pray God for the pardon 
of our sins and for thy salvation." Gregory be- 
stirred himself to grant the request of Nilus. Fore- 
seeing that his death was near, he desired those who 
were with him not to delay his funeral, not to bury 
him in a church, — to place no arch or other orna- 
mental monument over his grave : but if they 
wished to make some token of the place of his 
burial, to let it be a seat for wayfarers to rest upon, 
since he himself had ever lived as a wayfarer. 
They saw him lie two days stretched on his couch, 
speechless, and with closed eyes ; but they thought, 
from certain signs, that he was praying. When 
Gregory heard of his condition, he hastened from 
his castle with an experienced physician, whom he 
had with him. He threw himself on Nilus, weep- 
ing bitterly, and said : " father, father ! why dost 
thou leave us so soon ?" And kissing his hands, 
he added : " See, now, thou hinderest me no more 
from kissing thy hands, as thou wast wont to do, 
saying, ' I am no bishop, no priest, no deacon, but 
only a poor old man ; why wilt thou kiss my hands 
thus ?' ' : Whilst he said these words, he wept so 
bitterly that all present were moved to tears. 
They carried Nilus, in whom no signs of death 
could yet be seen, into the church, knowing that 
he would have wished to end his days on earth 
there. Gently he fell asleep, without any one ob- 



294 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

serving a death- struggle in him, — an end becoming 
such a life. It was in the year 1005. He left 
disciples behind him, who laboured on in his spirit 
in those times of depravity. 



OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 

As a new Christian revival distinguished the close 
of the eleventh century, missionaries were then 
sent forth from the reinvigorated Church. We 
w T ill sketch a portrait of one of these, to whom 
Pomerania owes its Christianity. It was Otho, 
bishop of Bamberg, who had already in his pas- 
toral office distinguished himself by his fidelity and 
his self-sacrificing love. He gladly imposed ab- 
stinences on self, in order to be able to give more 
to the poor. All that was presented to him by 
princes and nobles in the neighbourhood, or from 
a distance, he delighted in applying to this pur- 
pose. When once, at a season of feasting, when 
fish were very dear, a very costly fish was brought 
to his table, he said to his steward : "God forbid 
that the miserable Otho alone should eat so much 
money. Take this costly fish to my Christ, who 
should be dearer to me than myself. Bear it 
hence, wherever thou canst find one laid on a bed 
of sickness. Bread will do for me, a healthy man." 
Once, a valuable fur robe was presented to him, 
w T ith the request that he would wear it for the 
donor's sake. He sent this message back to the 



OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 295 

donor : " That since this gift was the token of es- 
pecial love, he would, for his sake who had shown 
him such love, take care that the gift should be 
laid up, securely and beyond the reach of harm; 
where neither moth nor rust could corrupt, nor 
thieves break through and steal." In which words 
he played on what our Lord had said about the 
treasure in heaven. The bishop had an accurate 
list of all the sick in the town by name, the lame, 
those who suffered from leprosy or cancer, with a 
precise description of the nature and duration of 
each disease. He made use of these notes in order 
to be able, through his steward, to help all in due 
time according to their need. He said, therefore, 
on this occasion, to one of his servants : " Take 
this beautiful fur, which I value much, and carry 
it to that lame man who is confined to his bed, 
whose body is covered with sores." (The sick man 
whom he named was an object of derision to the 
whole neighbourhood.) 

During a great scarcity, many of the poor peo- 
ple were fed by his love, which shrank from no 
sacrifice. A man whose heart was so enkindled 
by the fire of love, was perfectly fitted to bear 
witness of the Saviour to those who had not heard 
of him. 

There happened to come to him a certain bishop 
Bernhard, a man of Spanish origin. This man, who 
on account of some controversy could not enter on 
the bishopric to which he had been appointed, felt 
himself constrained to travel with his chaplain to 



296 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

the Slavonic tribes in Pomerania. There was in 
him a genuine missionary zeal, not however tem- 
pered by the requisite discretion. Accustomed to 
a severe ascetic life, he appeared barefoot, in a 
hermit's garb. He deemed it necessary, in order 
to carry on the missionary work in the spirit of 
Christ, according to the example of the apostles, 
literally to observe the directions given them by 
the Lord. (Matt, x, 9, 10.) We see in this that 
misuse of the Scriptures, by which men of the best 
intentions are often injured, when the wisdom of 
the serpent is not united with the simplicity of the 
dove. It is requisite, in passages such as these, to 
distinguish between what the Lord prescribes as 
an universal law for all ages, and what He only 
says in reference to particular circumstances de- 
termined by the peculiar occasion on which it was 
spoken. With regard to rules of this latter kind, 
under different circumstances the Lord would have 
spoken quite differently, and by a literal observance 
of such rules, under quite different circumstances, 
we should be acting entirely contrary to the will 
of Christ. We should not be doing that which 
Christ himself would, in such cases, have done or 
have commanded his disciples to do. We ought 
therefore to extract the general law from such par- 
ticular directions, in order duly to observe them 
according to the mind of Christ. Thus, in this in- 
stance, the Spanish bishop entirely misunderstood 
the meaning of Christ. The apostles, by acting as 
Christ directed them, were to manifest their confi- 



0TH0, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 297 

dence in God, whose Word they had gone forth to 
preach. Wherever they came, they found souls 
ready to receive them, who, in return for the bread 
of spiritual life, supplied them with bodily nourish- 
ment, (Luke xxii, 35;) and they were to be content 
with what each according to his means could afford 
them. Their not providing themselves with neces- 
saries for their journey made it easier for them to 
travel. But Bernhard was about to commence his 
missionary labours under totally different auspices. 
The inhabitants of Pomerania at that time were a 
happy and prosperous people, richly blessed with 
natural gifts ; amongst whom there were neither 
poor nor beggars. The only priests they knew ap- 
peared in wealth and splendor. Poverty was held 
amongst them to be something quite unworthy of 
the priesthood. From the way in which Bernhard 
came to them, he could seem to them nothing but 
a beggar — a man, that is to say, whom they would 
suspect of self-interested motives. He did not un- 
derstand how it behoves the true missionary to enter 
into the position and circumstances of those whom 
he desires to lead to the Gospel, and to become all 
things to all men. Amongst the Christian nations 
of those times, in whom the sense of sin was 
strongly developed by the yoke of the law, one 
who appeared like Bernhard, as a strict monk, 
might obtain great veneration. But it was other- 
wise with the heathen Pomeranians. When St. 
Paul says of himself, in Romans vii, " I was alive 
once without the law," he describes a particular stage 



298 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

of development both with individuals and with na- 
tions, in which a man carries sin about with him as 
something sleeping or dead, in which, as the sense 
of law, so also the sense of sin has not yet clearly 
manifested itself, and good and evil, yet undevel- 
oped, lie in the germ beside each other. The man 
is yet a hidden and unknown being to himself. He 
has not yet been put to any test which would make 
him feel the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, 
the chasm between the requirements of the law and 
his own lusts. Many good impulses may be per- 
ceived in such a state, outbreaks now of the good, 
then of the evil nature will be seen, and both are 
mingled together. In such a case a man, follow- 
ing the good inclinations of his heart, may accom- 
plish, as it were instinctively, much that is good : — 
hospitality, a certain love of family, and of country, 
and much that makes men amiable may be found 
in him, as long as natural selfishness is not exposed 
to any very hard test. But he is yet far from 
knowing what the nature of the law is, and what 
the nature of sin. In such a position as this the 
Pomeranians then were ; and from such a position, 
the inward conflicts, the state of contrition from 
which monasticism and the ascetic life arose, must 
have seemed perfectly incomprehensible, and the 
life which Bernhard led something altogether inex- 
plicable. He was sure to incur their contempt, and 
they could only deem him a madman. Neverthe- 
less, they did him no harm, until, by another indis- 
cretion of fanatical zeal, he excited the rage of the 



GTH0, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 299 

ignorant heathen, — namely, by destroying an idol, 
before anything had occurred to destroy idolatry 
in their hearts ; an act which, thus unprepared, 
could avail nothing, and could only embitter men's 
minds. Bernhard was compelled to go on board 
a ship, and was banished the country. He re- 
paired to Bamberg and sought to gain Bishop Otho 
for the cause, for which he had been able to accom- 
plish nothing, because he had not set about it in 
the right way. His example also served to make 
the bishop on his guard against similar mistakes. 
He therefore, dearly as he loved everything mo- 
nastic, divested himself of everything of the kind 
on his appearance amongst the Pomeranians. He 
resolved rather to appear in the splendor of his 
episcopal rank. He not only provided himself in 
the most abundant way with all that was necessary 
for the maintenance of himself and his attendants, 
but he also carried with him costly garments and 
other things as presents for the people of rank, and 
also all the requisite ecclesiastical vessels, in order 
clearly to show that he did not come to gain any- 
thing, but rather gave up his own, in order to lead 
the foreign nation to what he believed highest and 
best. 

In the year 1124, Otho commenced his mission- 
ary expedition. After many happy results, but 
also after having made many vain efforts, and 
passed through many great perils, he arrived in the 
metropolis, Stettin. Much depended on the way 
in which he was received there. Many of the hea- 



300 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

then awaited, with eager expectation, the decision 
of their metropolis, and this seemed at first no fa- 
vourable one. How frequently has Christianity 
been most injured by the conduct of those who 
profess it ! What men had seen in Stettin of the 
condition of the neighbouring Christian nations, 
which were, indeed, far from being truly Christian, 
did not tend to produce an advantageous idea of 
Christianity itself. For the Pomeranians, as we 
have remarked, were still, as it were, in the condi- 
tion of a happy childhood, and knew not yet the 
evils through which it was necessary to pass, in 
order to attain to manhood. They knew nothing 
of the evils attending a commencement of good 
morals and civilization, from which man, who is 
destined not for an easy life on earth in dull uncon- 
sciousness, but for the dominion of the world in the 
image of God, cannot escape. It was yet strange 
to them, all the misery of the conscious discord 
which a man must have experienced in order to 
learn the ruin of his nature, and the only remedy 
for it. Thus the men of Stettin were disposed to 
over-estimate the happiness of their own condition, 
because they judged the effects of Christianity only 
according to the appearance which presented itself 
to a superficial observation, according to that which 
they perceived in the multitude. 

While Otho, whose patience was not to be wea- 
ried by the first failure, remained many months in 
Stettin, he laboured, in the most convincing way, 
to refute these accusations against Christianity by 



OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 301 

the example of his pious life, inspired as it was by 
the spirit of love. If these heathens had heard of 
vices as prevalent amongst the Christians, such as 
attend the transition from barbarism to civilization, 
and were unknown amongst them, Otho now showed 
them virtues such as were also quite unknown 
amongst them, — proofs of that self-sacrificing love 
which is only found where the Spirit of God over- 
comes man's natural selfishness. He ransomed 
many captives with his gold, and after providing 
them with clothes and victuals, sent them back to 
their friends. But the most favourable effect was 
produced by one especial incident, by which the 
tender heart of the bishop became more generally 
known, and by which the minds of the young were 
drawn towards him. 

A rich and distinguished man, in the city, had 
for his wife a lady who had, in her youth, been 
carried away captive from a Christian country, and 
who was secretly a Christian. She had, indeed, 
ever remained true to her faith, but she had not 
dared openly to confess it amongst the heathen. 
So much the more was she rejoiced at the bishop's 
arrival ; still she did not venture openly to express 
her joy, and to unite with him. It probably did 
not happen without her influence, however, that 
both her sons frequently visited the priests, and 
questioned them concerning the Christian faith. 
The bishop availed himself of this, gradually to lay 
before them the principal doctrines of Christianity. 
Thev at length declared themselves convinced, and 



302 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

desired to be baptized. After their baptism, they 
remained eight days with the bishop, in order to 
spend the first week with him profitably in their 
white baptismal robes. Meantime, before the time 
had elapsed, their mother heard of it. Full of joy, 
she sent to the bishop, saying that she wished to 
see him and her sons. He awaited her in the open 
air, seated on the turf, surrounded by his clergy. 
The sight of her sons, in the white robes of bap- 
tism, made so powerful an impression on the mother, 
who had concealed her faith for so many years, that, 
overpowered by her feelings, she fell weeping on 
the ground. The bishop and his clergy, much 
alarmed, hastened to her, thinking that it was grief 
at her sons' having apostatized from the religion of 
their fathers, which had affected her so strongly. 
But they found it quite another thing, as soon as 
the lady was restored to consciousness, and could 
find words to express her feelings. Her first words 
were : " I praise Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, Thou 
fountain of all hope and comfort, that I see my 
sons consecrated by Thy sacraments, enlightened by 
faith in Thy Divine truth." And, kissing and em- 
bracing her sons, she added : " For Thou knowest, 
my Lord Jesus Christ, that, in the secret of m}?- 
heart, I have not ceased for many years to commit 
these to Thy mercy, praying Thee to do that for 
them which Thou hast done for me." And then 
she turned to the bishop with these words : 
"Blessed be your coming to this city; for. if ye 
faint not, ye shall gain a great company here for 



OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 303 

the Lord. But let not the long waiting weary you, 
See, I myself, who stand before you here, — I confess, 
by the help of the Almighty God, encouraged, 
venerable father, by thy presence, and also relying 
on the help of these my children, that I am a 
Christian, which hitherto I did not venture openly 
to do." And thereupon she related to him her 
whole history. Deeply moved, the bishop thanked 
God for the wonderful guidance of His grace, tes- 
tified his cordial sympathy with the lady, said many 
words to her to strengthen her faith, and presented 
her with a costly mantle of fur. When those eight 
days had elapsed, and the newly baptized had, ac- 
cording to custom, laid aside their white robes, the 
signs of the new garment of innocence, he presented 
them with beautiful and costly clothes, and after 
administering to them the Holy Supper for the first 
time, sent them back to then friends. 

When the destruction of all the monuments of 
idolatry was finally resolved upon, and this resolu- 
tion was carried out, many valuable things were 
discovered, all of which they wished to bestow 
upon the bishop. But he would receive nothing, 
saying : " Far be it from us to seek to enrich our- 
selves through you. All such things, and yet more 
beautiful, we have already in abundance at home." 
Yet he was also far from desiring to devote all 
which had once ministered to the idol- worship, on 
that account, to destruction. He permitted the 
people to divide amongst themselves all the trea- 
sures that had been gained by the destruction of 



304 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

the idol-temples, after, in conformity with the eccle- 
siastical usages of the times, he had signed them 
with the sign of the cross, and sprinkled them with 
holy water. From Stettin, Otho's labours were 
extended to other parts of the country ; yet he 
could not succeed in laying an indestructible found- 
ation for the Christian Church. His influence on 
men's minds had been limited by many things ; he 
had only been able to speak to the people through 
an interpreter, and the motives which caused the 
accession of a portion of the people were external 
and political. Otho was also recalled too soon to 
his diocese by his official duties, before he could 
carry on the work, and set it on a firmer basis. 
The contagion of one-half of the country which ad- 
hered to heathenism, necessarily reacted on those 
in the other half in which the Christian Church 
had been founded, who were still weak in the faith. 
Many, in consequence of the abstinences which were 
laid on them by the strict discipline of the Church, 
would cast back a longing look to the pleasures of 
heathen dissipation, and the example of their hea- 
then countrymen would serve to increase this long- 
ing. Nevertheless, Otho left in many hearts an 
incorruptible seed, from which, on the other hand, 
might proceed a reaction against the reviving power 
of heathenism. Not seldom, in the history of Mis- 
sions, may we observe how, after a rapid, and, to 
the superficial observer, too promising diffusion of 
Christianity, follows a fresh revival of the power 
of heathenism, and only after new conflicts, by 



OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 305 

which the true is sifted from the false, can Chris- 
tianity rise, reconquering, from her defeat. 

Gladly would Otho have come sooner to the aid 
of the oppressed infant Church; but he was hin- 
dered three years, by various misfortunes and offi- 
cial engagements, from following the impulse of 
his heart, and it was not until the spring of the 
year 1128 that he was able to return. Travelling 
by a different route from that which he had taken 
before, he arrived first at the town of Demmind, 
whose governor was an old acquaintance of his. 
Here he met Duke Wratislas, of Pomerania, whose 
heart he had gained on his first mission. He was 
returning- victorious from a war with some neio;h- 
bouring Slavonic tribes, laden with booty. Here 
Otho saw sights which deeply pained his affec- 
tionate heart. The army of the Duke had carried 
off many captives, who were to be distributed like 
the rest of the booty. Amongst these were many 
of feeble and delicate frames ; husbands were 
threatened, by the lot, with separation from their 
wives, wives from their husbands, children from 
their parents. Otho first succeeded in prevailing 
on the Duke to liberate the feeblest, and not to 
separate relations from one another. But this was 
not enough for him ; he himself, from his own 
purse, paid the ransom for many who were still 
heathens, instructed them in Christianity, baptized 
them, and so sent them back to their people. It 
was then decided that the Feast of Pentecest 

should be chosen for the convening of a diet, in 
20 



300 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

which the consent of the States to the foundation 
of the Christian Church, in all parts of the coun- 
try, should be sought. 

The city of Usedom, in which, by means of the 
priests whom Otho left behind him on his first mis- 
sionary journey, the seed of Christianity had al- 
ready been sown, was chosen as the seat of this 
Diet. The Diet was composed partly of those 
who had always continued heathen, and partly of 
those who had been previously converted by Otho, 
but during his absence had again sunk into Pagan- 
ism. The duke presented the bishop to the as- 
sembly ; he was a man whose whole appearance 
was calculated to inspire reverence. He called 
their attention to the fact, that by the appearing 
of this man amongst them, the old excuse — that 
the preachers of this religion were poor despicable 
people, on whom no reliance could be placed, who 
only sought to gain a livelihood by these means — 
was removed.. They saw before them one of the 
first princes of the German empire, who in his own 
home had an abundance of everything, who pos- 
sessed much gold and silver and many precious 
stones ; of whom, therefore, there could be no sus- 
picion that he was seeking anything for himself; 
who, on the contrary, had abandoned a life full of 
honour and comfort, and spent his own property 
in order to communicate to them what he deemed 
the best thing. These words prepared the way in 
men's hearts for the bishop's discourse. The 
Feast of Pentecost gave him occasion to speak of 



0TH0, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 307 

the grace and goodness of God, of the forgiveness 
of sins, of the communication of the Holy Ghost 
to the redeemed, and of the gifts of the Spirit. 
His words produced a deep impression — the lapsed 
testified their repentance, and were readmitted into 
the Church by the bishop ; whilst those who had 
hitherto remained heathens, were instructed in 
Christianity and baptized. By a decree of the 
Diet, the free proclamation of the Gospel was per- 
mitted everywhere. 

The union of gentleness and firmness was what 
distinguished bishop Otho. We have seen how 
he saved the things which had been devoted to 
idol-worship from destruction, applying them to a 
better purpose. In other circumstances, however, 
he acted quite otherwise. Whilst he was labour- 
ing in the city of Gietzkow, the people entreated 
him to spare a new and magnificent temple, which 
was looked upon as the special ornament of the 
town. But in vain were large presents offered 
him with this design. At length they only en- 
treated that the temple might be converted into a 
Christian church. But the bishop feared, that if 
this were permitted, it might lead to a confusion 
of heathenism with Christianity. In order to con- 
vince the people that it was for their own good he 
was compelled to resist their will in this instance, 
he made use of this comparison : " Would you sow 
grain," he said, " in the midst of thorns and this- 
tles ? I trow not. If, therefore, you first root 
out the thorns and thistles from your fields, in 



808 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

order that the good seed you scatter there may 
bring forth fruit ; so must I cast out from amongst 
you all which serves as seed for heathenism, but 
as thorns for my preaching, that your hearts may, 
from the good seed of the Gospel, bring forth 
fruit unto everlasting life." And by persevering 
daily in his remonstrances, he at length overcame 
the opposition of the people, so that they them- 
selves destroyed both the temple and the idols. 
But, on the other hand, in order to compensate the 
people for the loss of their temple, Otho zealously 
promoted the erection of a magnificent church. 
And as soon as the choir (holy of holies) and the 
altar were ready, he appointed a consecration-fes- 
tival. When, therefore, high and low were gathered 
together to celebrate it, and after all the arranofe- 
ments ordered by the Church at such consecra- 
tions were completed, he explained to the assem- 
bled multitude the symbolic meaning of these 
thing's ; and made use of these to direct their at- 
tention from the outward to the inward, and to 
warn them against placing their trust in outward 
things. He endeavoured to make it plain to the 
people that what was here done externally, had 
reference to the secret things of the soul — that this 
must become a temple of the Holy Ghost, Christ 
dwelling therein by faith. Then he turned to the 
one amongst the great men of the land, w T ho reigned 
in that part of Pomerania, Nuzlav, who had been 
baptized by him at the Diet of Usedom : " Thou," 
he said to him, " thou, my son, art the true house 



0TH0, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 309 

of God. Thou must consecrate thyself to-day to 
thy God, thy Almighty Creator, in order that thou, 
being delivered from all the spirits that have taken 
possession of thy heart, mayst become a dwelling- 
place and a possession for Him alone. Therefore, 
my beloved son, hinder not the completion of this 
consecration ; for it profits nothing that this visible 
house of God should be outwardly consecrated, if 
that which this consecration signifies does not also 
take place in thy heart." Then, as the bishop 
perceived by the movements of Xiizlav, that he 
was not untouched by the operations of the Holy 
Spirit, he added : " In part, my son, thou hast be- 
gun to be the house of God. Labour to be so 
wholly. Already hast thou exchanged idolatry 
for the faith, and received the grace of baptism. 
Now must thou adorn thy faith with ivories of 
piety, — renouncing robbery, murder, oppression, 
and deceit. It must become the rule of thy life, 
not to do to others what thou wouldest not that they 
should do to thee. Set thy captives free ; or, if 
thou wilt not do that, at least set those at liberty 
who are Christians, and have one common faith 
with thee." Striigrcrling with himself. Xtizlav said : 
" It is a hard thino- for me, father, to aive free- 
dom to all ; for some owe me large sums." Then 
the bishop replied : " The Word of the Lord tells 
us to forgive our debtors, that we also may be for- 
given. Thus mayest thou obtain absolution for all 
thy debts from the Lord, if thou absolvest all thy 
debtors in His name." Then Niizlav said with 



310 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

deep sighs : " See, in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
I set them all free, that, according to thy words, 
this consecration may be completed in me to-day, 
by the forgiveness of all my sins." And, calling 
the servant who had the oversight of the prisoners, 
he commanded him to set them all free. But he 
made one exception, of which no one knew any- 
thing. This was the son of a Danish nobleman, 
whom his father, who owed him a very large sum, 
had left with him as a hostage. He was left un- 
der heavy chains in a subterranean dungeon. But 
by an especial Providence, he also was to be set at 
liberty. 

All were full of joy at Nuzlav's conduct. The 
clergy bestirred themselves to get everything ready 
for the completion of the solemnity, when a neces- 
sary ecclesiastical vessel was missed. Whilst a 
priest was going about in search of it, he came 
near a subterranean dungeon, and the captive youth 
succeeded in attracting his observation. He called 
him to him, and entreated him to obtain his libera- 
tion through the bishop. When the bishop heard 
this, he was moved with compassion ; but he could 
not venture to ask this favour also from one who 
had already granted so much. He had recourse 
to fervent prayer ; and when he arose from prayer, 
he called his priests to him, and desired them to 
take Nuzlav apart, and, with all modesty, to prefer 
him this petition. It cost the man much to make 
this sacrifice also, and to renounce so large a sum. 
But, after some conflict, he overcame himself. He 



OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 311 

went weeping to the bishop, and said to him : "Yea, 
for the name of my Lord Jesus, if he calls for it, I 
will yield up my body, and all I have, in devout 
obedience." The example of this powerful man 
excited many to follow it ; so that every one, ac- 
cording to his degree, sought to prove the genuine- 
ness of his conversion by his works, and the sacri- 
fices which he made. 

Bishop Otho would gladly have sacrificed his 
life for the love of Christ. He longed for the 
crown of martyrdom, and his fervour may have 
carried him beyond the bounds of discretion. With 
longing eyes he looked on the isle of Rugen, situ- 
ated about two days' journey off; and an eager 
desire arose in him to 2:0 forth, as a witness for the 
faith, amongst the warlike inhabitants of that island, 
who were wholly given to idolatry. But death 
menaced him there: the people of Rugen had 
doomed the foe of their gods to death, if he dared 
to cross their shores. The evident danger could 
not, however, withhold Bishop Otho. Joyfully 
would he encounter death for the cause of Christ. 

The Duke of Pomerania, and all Otho's friends, 
sought to dissuade him from such a step, but in 
vain; in vain did they represent to him that he 
ought to preserve his life for further service. He 
called this weakness of faith, saying that men must 
seal the Christian faith with works rather than with 
words. " How," he said, " can the preachers of 
the Gospel expect the reward of eternal life, if they 
shrink from yielding up this present life ? And if, 



312 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

in proclaiming the Gospel amongst the heathen, 
we all should die for the name of Christ, would not 
our preaching be all the more glorious, because 
sealed with our blood?" But as his friends en- 
deavoured in all possible ways to prevent his going 
to Rtigen, he looked about for some means of de- 
parting unobserved, and they were therefore obliged 
to watch him narrowly. But whilst, by most, Otho's 
fervent zeal was blamed as not sufficiently discreet, 
one of his priests, named Ulrich, felt himself con- 
strained to carry out the thought for which Otho 
himself was ready to offer up his life, Having re- 
ceived the bishop's blessing, he took a boat, and 
carried with him all things necessary for the cele- 
bration of the mass. But he had to contend inces- 
santly with wind and weather, and thrice he had to 
yield to the violence of the elements ; yet, as soon 
as the fury of the tempest abated, he was again 
prepared to cross over to the island of Riigen. 
Thus he endured seven days the conflict with winds 
and waves, and often found himself in great peril, 
But as the weather remained constantly unfavoura- 
ble, and the boat already began to leak, the bishop 
regarded it as an indication of the Divine will, which 
must be against the fulfilment of the undertaking ; 
and he himself called back his beloved priest from 
the shore into his own house, thanking God that 
He had given him such strength of faith and stead- 
fastness. By the free way in which the conduct 
of the bishop was now discussed by his clergy, and 
by the manner in which he bore their blame, we 



OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 313 

may see the beautiful relation then still preserved 
between the chief and the subordinates; the inde- 
pendence of the clergy, and the mildness of the 
bishop. After their common meal, the clergy be- 
gan, in the presence of the bishop, to jest about 
Ulrich's expedition. "Who," said they, "would 
have been guilty of murder if he had perished ?" 
Then another, who had always declared himself 
strongly against the enterprise, observed, " Who 
would more justly have borne the guilt of the mur- 
der, than he who induced him to throw himself 
into such danger?" But the bishop, who did not 
take this amiss, sought to excuse himself from such 
an accusation. "WheD," he said, "the Lord sent 
His disciples as sheep amongst wolves, and they 
were torn by the wolves, who was guilty of their 
death? Is the Lord to blame*?"' Certainly, this 
is one of those applications of the words of Christ, 
in which, as in the instance before adduced, due 
attention was not paid to the context and the ob- 
ject ! Christ did not expose his disciples to certain 
death amoogst the " wolves," but recommended 
them to blend the wisdom of the serpent with the 
simplicity of the dove, in order to escape the dan- 
ger with which they were threatened. He did not 
desire them to sacrifice life without aim and without 
profit, but to preserve it in and for their high voca- 
tion, and only then to sacrifice it when fidelity to 
their calling required it of them. The right under- 
standing of the teaching which Christ gave the 
apostles in reference to the labours of their calling, 



314 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

would rather have withheld the pious bishop from 
obeying the impulses of a fanatical zeal. 

There was another occasion, however, on which 
Otho wisely hazarded all, in order to gain a triumph 
for the Gospel ; for, in this instance, he might well 
expect a happy issue, if relying on the Lord he 
shrank from no peril. It was the advancement of 
the work he had commenced, for which he was 
obliged to risk his life, trusting to the protection 
of Him to whose service he had consecrated it. 
The prosperity of the whole Church in Pomerania 
depended on the fact whether heathenism or Chris- 
tianity were victorious in Stettin, the metropolis. 
The power of heathenism had arisen there afresh. 
Those priests, who at Otho's first coming had suf- 
fered themselves to be baptized, had nevertheless 
continued heathens in heart, and they lost too much 
by the change of religion to brook it patiently. It 
was easy for them to find means of influencing the 
masses of the barbarous people. A pestilence 
which spread amongst men and cattle, and of which 
many died, was indicated by them as a sign of the 
wrath of their gods, and this was readily believed 
by the bewildered people. They at length suc- 
ceeded in exciting the multitude so far, that they 
rose and gathered together to destroy a Christian 
church. The most terrible accounts were spread 
abroad in consequence of the fury of the heathen 
population of Stettin, and of the imminent danger 
which beset those who ventured to enter the city 
in the name of Christianity. Bishop Otho was not 



OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 315 

to be alarmed by these accounts, but bis clergy 
had not the like heroism of faith, and fear kept 
them back. When Otho found that he could not 
overcome their opposition by his arguments, he re- 
solved to go thither alone. After having prepared 
himself by a day's solitude, he stole away in the 
dark of the evening with his missal and his sacra- 
mental chalice. The clergy first learned his depar- 
ture when they went to call him for the early 
morning service. Full of shame, and of anxiety 
for their spiritual father, they hastened after him, 
constrained him to return with them, and on the 
next morning they set out with him, and went by 
sea to Stettin. 

But they knew not how the seed which Otho had 
scattered there, crushed as it appeared to be, had 
been germinating and growing in secret. A reaction 
of Christianity, already deeply implanted in the 
hearts of many, at length, under various favouring 
circumstances, led to its final triumph over heathen- 
ism. It appears that Christianity had found the 
readiest welcome amongst the higher and more 
educated classes. Over these the heathen priests 
did not possess so much influence ; amongst them 
reviving heathenism found no connecting link. 
They only dreaded to brave the tumult of the mad- 
dened people. But there were some who had been 
touched by Christianity without having completely 
renounced heathenism. In them heathenism and 
Christianity contended with each other, and it de- 
pended on many influences which should gain the 



316 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

day. At this very insurrection, which had for its 
object the destruction of a church, it had happened, 
that one of the insurgents, when he was about to 
strike with a hammer, was suddenly seized as if 
with a fit. His hand was, as it were, paralyzed. 
He let the hammer fall, and sank from the ladder. 
He may have belonged to the number of the 
apostate Christians. The faith which was yet by 
no means extinguished in his heart may again have 
asserted its power, thence a struggle have arisen in 
his soul, and terror seized him, arresting his hand, 
as he was about to join in the destruction of the 
temple dedicated to the God of the Christians. 
Heathenism still reigned perhaps in his soul; he 
could not renounce the worships of the old gods ; 
but, at the same time, the God whose temple they 
were about to destroy seemed to him One against 
whom no human power could contend, as was now 
evidenced ; and he advised that, in order to keep 
on terms with all the gods, they should erect altars 
to the national gods beside this church. This was 
often a bridge which led from heathenism to Chris- 
tianity, when the heathen began to recognise the 
God of the Christians as a mighty Being beside 
their own gods. By all these favourable circum- 
stances the way was prepared for the renewed 
labours of Otho in Stettin, and he found there a 
zealous friend, who in consequence of the experi- 
ences of his life had become a bold confessor of 
Christianity — that Witstock, of the remarkable in- 
cidents in whose life we have spoken before. 



OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 31 7 

But Otho knew nothing of all this. Not in re- 
liance on human means, and the co-operation of 
circumstances, but in reliance on God alone and 
bowing to His will, he went forth to meet the 
threatened danger, deeming his life to be a small 
thing in comparison with the holy cause which he 
served. He first found a refuge with his attend- 
ants in a church outside the city. When this be- 
came known amongst the people, an armed multi- 
tude collected before this church, led on by the 
priests. They threatened destruction to the church 
and death to all within it. Here we see how the 
power of faith gives true presence of mind — true 
prudence, in those critical moments on the right 
use of which the whole future often hangs. Had 
Otho suffered himself to be terrified, and shown 
fear, the enraged people would have gone farther 
with their attack ; but they were overpowered by 
his trustful composure and courage. After com- 
mitting himself and his people to God in prayer, 
he went forth in his episcopal robes, in the midst 
of his clergy, chanting hymns and psalms. 

The calmness of the bishop who thus dared to 
despise the fury of the maddened crowd, and the 
grandeur of such a sight, awed the multitude. A 
pause ensued ; and this was employed by the wiser 
among them, or those who were more favourable to 
Christianity, to quiet men's minds. They told the 
priests that they should defend their cause, not with 
violence, but with arguments. Gradually the crowd 
dispersed. The Saturday following this day, which 



318 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

was Friday, Otho spent in preparing himself, by 
prayer and fasting for the approaching events. 
Witstock, who, since his wonderful deliverance, 
had never ceased to bear witness for the Lord, 
to whom he owed so much, was now yet further 
strengthened by the arrival of his beloved spiritual 
father. He led his friends and relations to the 
bishop, and bade him be of good cheer, and not 
shrink from the conflict. He assured him of victory, 
and counselled him what to do. 

On the Sunday, Otho caused himself to be led 
to the market-place by Witstock, in his priestly 
robes. He ascended the platform from which the 
heralds and other persons in authority were wont 
to address the people. When Witstock, by words 
and gestures, had commanded silence, Otho began 
to speak. The greater number listened quietly 
and attentively. But then came forth a tall and 
handsome priest, a man of powerful frame, and with 
his strong voice quite drowned the voices of Otho 
and his interpreter ; seeking to inflame the fury of 
the people against the enemy of their gods, and 
exhorting them to take this opportunity of revenge. 
The lances were raised, but no one ventured to un- 
dertake anything against a man who stood before 
them with such calmness of faith. It was the im- 
pression of the power of the Divine Presence on 
the wild crowd, the calm superiority of sober courage 
to raging passion, to which may also have been 
added, with a large portion of the assembly, the 
yet unextinguished influence of the Christianity to 



OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG. 319 

which they had once yielded themselves. Otho 
made use of the favourable effect of such an inci- 
dent on men's hearts, and proceeded with the as- 
sembled band of believers to the church beside 
which the heathen altar had been erected. He 
consecrated it afresh, and caused the injuries which 
had been done it to be repaired at his own cost. 

On the next day, an assembly of the people was 
to decide on the course to be adopted in this reli- 
gious crisis. This lasted from the early morning 
until midnight. Some arose and related all that 
had occurred on the previous day to the assembly 
in the miraculous light in which it represented it- 
self to them, testifying with enthusiasm to the active 
and self-sacrificing love of the bishop. Amongst 
these, Witstock held the first place. It was re- 
solved, that Christianity should be recognised, and 
all which belonged to heathenism be destroyed, 
That same night, Witstock hastened to inform the 
bishop of all that had passed. On the next morn- 
ing, Otho arose early to praise God for all that His 
grace had done. He then called an assembly of the 
people, and addressed to them words of exhorta- 
tion, which made a deep impression. Many apos- 
tates desired to be restored to the communion of 
the faithful. Thus was the victory won for Chris- 
tianity. Gladly would Otho, fearless of the mar- 
tyr's death, have extended his labours to the island 
of Rugen, had he not been recalled by duty to his 
own diocese in the year 1128, 



320 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 



RAYMOND LULL. 

We conclude these Memoirs from the history of 
Missions in the Middle Ages with the portrait of an 
extraordinary man, who was awakened to the higher 
life in a very remarkable way, — a man of a rare 
variety of high qualities and intellectual endow- 
ments, all illumined by the glow of holy love, — 
Raymond Lull. We see, by his example, how 
much that is great may remain slumbering in a man, 
until he is brought, by the breaking-in of a sunbeam 
from above on his heart, to a consciousness of him- 
self, and thus to energetic action. Manifold talents 
are required for the missionary work, which must 
be inspired by the Holy Ghost ; every one cannot 
effect everything under all circumstances. The 
greatest things are, indeed, accomplished by the 
power of the simple Gospel, — by the manifestation 
of the Spirit, and the power which accompanies 
those essential truths in the hearts of men. But 
amongst nations possessed of scientific culture, in 
which the previous civilization is found in the ser- 
vice of a religion hostile to Christianity, a science 
which renders homage to the Cross and to the 
spirit of the Gospel, may become an important 
means of transition to Christianity. The example 
of Paul proves this, as well as many examples in 
the first centuries. And in this relation, Raymond 
Lull is worthy of mention, a man of high intellect, 
who called the attention of his contemporaries to 



RAYMOND LULL. 321 

this union of science with religion, who in all his 
deep thinking had for his object to find some means 
of leading the reason to the obedience of faith. 
For the Missions of our own time also, his words 
may well be taken to heart. 

Raymond Lull was born on the island of Ma- 
jorca, in the year 1236. Until his thirtieth year 
he led an entirely wordly life at the court of the 
king of the Balearic Isles, — without any higher 
aims. Even after his marriage, he continued to 
indulge his passions in disregard of the marriage 
tie. His poems were inspired by sensual love. He 
himself, in his work on the contemplation of God, 
thus bewails the loss of the first half of his life : 
"As, Lord, we first see the trees bring forth 
leaves and twigs, and then flowers, and after the 
flowers fruits, a sign is hereby given to us that we 
should first display the tokens of a good life, and 
then good works : as we see the flowers follow the 
leaves, and afterwards the fruit succeed the flower, 
so also the results which flow from our good deeds 
should be seen. If those trees are beautiful and 
good which bring forth leaves, branches, flowers, 
and fruits, how much better and more beautiful 
are men when they perform works of love, praising 
their Lord, their Maker and their God. Trees and 
plants obey the law of their destiny in that which 
they do, — step by step bringing forth leaves, and 
flowers, and fruits ; but with us it is not so, but we 
do the opposite, for we see daily that men do in 
their youth what they should do in old age, and 



322 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

in old age what they should have done in youth. 
I see, Lord, that the trees bring forth, every 
year, flowers and fruits, by which men are cheered 
and nourished ; but with me, a sinner, it has not 
been so. For during thirty years I brought no 
fruit to the world, yea rather injured my neigh- 
bours and my friends. If, therefore, the tree, un- 
endowed with reason, bears more fruit than I have 
borne, well may I be ashamed, and acknowledge 
my great guilt. To Thee, Lord my God, I thy 
servant offer many thanks, in that I perceive a wide 
difference between the deeds of my youth and 
those of my declining age. For as then all my 
works consisted in sin and the partaking of sin, so 
now, I trust that, through Thy grace, all my works, 
my thoughts, and my wishes will tend to Thy glory." 
But the emotions of Christian piety, which influ- 
enced his age and his nation, had also by educa- 
tion been imparted to him, and although over- 
whelmed by sensuality, had not yet lost all power 
over him. In this, as in so many other instances, 
is seen the great blessing of those pious influences 
on the growing child, which, even in a life hurried 
away by sensual desires and passions, will in the 
end spring forth again. It was so with Raymond 
Lull. From these influences arose a sense of con- 
trast to all which had formerly animated his life. 
One night, when he was lying on his bed com- 
posing a love-song, the image of the crucified 
Christ came before his eyes and made so strong 
an impression on him that he could proceed no 



RAYMOND LULL. 323 

further with his love-song. Still, he would not 
give up, and began afresh, — but yet again that 
Form came before him with fresh power, until he 
was at length compelled to desist from the com- 
pletion of the song. Day and night that Form 
floated before his eyes, and he could not free him- 
self from the impression. For considering the 
manifold ways which Divine grace pursues with 
the souls of men in order to save them, — we must 
indeed acknowledge, that although the power of 
the Divine over the heart is ever the same, yet the 
manner in which men become conscious of this im- 
pression is determined by individual intellect and 
temperament, as also the mode of conversion, 
whether more gradual, or resulting from a great 
and sudden convulsion. With Raymond Lull, a 
man of a poetic mind, in whom imagination was 
predominant, in whom the power of the Divine 
manifested itself in opposition to the hitherto ruling 
power of sensual passion, the Divine power of the 
impression which the image of Christ had made 
on his heart, displayed itself in visions. He re- 
cognised in these an admonition to fly from the 
world and consecrate himself wholly to the ser- 
vice of Christ. But now the question arose within 
him : " How can I turn from my hitherto impure 
life to so holy a vocation?" By night even this 
thought allowed him no rest. Then he said to 
himself : " Christ is so gentle, patient, and com- 
passionate. He calls all simmers to him, he will 
not then cast me out, notwithstanding my. sins," 



324 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

Thus he became assured that it was God's will 
that he should leave the world and devote himself 
with his whole heart to the service of Christ. 

Resolved, therefore, to consecrate himself wholly 
to the service of Christ, he began to take counsel 
with himself as to the best mode of doing this, — 
and he attained the firm conviction that there could 
be no work more acceptable to the Lord Christ than 
to sacrifice his life in the proclamation of the Gospel, 
and hence his thoughts were especially directed to 
the Saracens, whom the Crusaders had vainly endea- 
voured to subject to the power of the sword. But 
then the thought occurred to him how could he, an 
unlearned layman, be capable of such a work. 
Whilst he was filled with deep grief on this account, 
the idea seized him of writing a book which should 
tend to manifest the truth in opposition to all the 
errors of infidels. He believed this to be a Divine 
call, (and this was of importance as regarded the 
direction which his deep meditations thenceforth 
took,) to show the harmony between the revealed 
truths of the faith and what is founded in the nature 
of the human mind. 

The heavenly power of love by which he was 
now penetrated, also gave a new impulse to his 
thoughts. Yet he questioned himself further, — even 
if he should succeed in writing such a book, what 
use would it be to the Saracens, who understood 
no language but Arabic ? Thus, the plan developed 
itself in him of applying to the Pope and the Chris- 
tian princes to found schools in the convents, for 



RAYMOND l\:ll. 325 

instruction in Arabic and other languages spoken 
amono-st the infidels. Philological science was to 
minister to the work of grace. If such institutions 
were founded, Raymond Lull thought, missionaries 
might go forth from them to every region. This 
was the commencement of missionary colleges, in 
which instruction should be given in various lan- 
guages. The next day he repaired to a neighbour- 
ing church, and besought the'Lord with many tears, 
that He who had breathed this thought into his 
soul, would enable him to complete this work in 
defence of. Christianity, to effect the institution of 
these missionary and philological colleges, and at 
last to sacrifice his life for the cause of the Lord. 
This happened in the beginning of July ; but the 
higher life in Raymond Lull had yet many storms 
to pass through, ere it could become a steadfast 
thing. Old habits were still too powerful with him, 
and thus it happened that during three months he 
occupied himself no further with the thought, 
which had possessed him so strongly. Then came 
the fourth of October, the festival of St. Francis 
d'Assisi, and he heard a bishop, in the Franciscan 
church at Majorca, preach on St. Francis's renuncia- 
tion of the world. This re-awakened what had been 
slumbering in his soul. He resolved immediately 
to follow St. Francis's example ; he sold his posses- 
sions, only retaining what was requisite for the 
maintenance of his wife and children, devoted him- 
self unreservedly to the Lord Christ, and left his 
home with the determination of never returning to 



326 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

it. He first visited many churches, in which he 
called on God to bless the execution of the projects 
which possessed him with such power. He then 
wished to proceed to Paris, in order, by studying 
at the university there, to obtain the requisite scien- 
tific information for the execution of his plans. 
But he was withheld from carrying out this plan, 
by the influence of his relations and friends. He 
therefore remained in Majorca, and commenced his 
studies there. He purchased a Saracen slave, from 
whom he learned Arabic. The defence of Chris- 
tian truths was the great object of his researches. 
If, he thought, he could succeed in controverting 
the objections of the Mohammedan doctors against 
Christianity, whilst they could not controvert the 
arguments which he brought forward in its favour, 
they would be constrained to come over to Chris- 
tianity ; a process of reasoning in which he certainly 
relied too much on the power of his arguments. 
The promotion of missions was the first thing with 
him ; the acquisition of languages was to minister 
to that. He succeeded so far with James, king of 
Majorca and Minorca, that in the year 1275 an 
Abbey was founded on the first of these islands, in 
which thirteen Franciscans were constantly to be in- 
structed in Arabic, in order to be able to labour as 
missionaries amongst the Saracens. In the year 
1286, he repaired to Rome, in order to gain over 
Pope Honorius IV. to his project, that similar mis- 
sionary colleges might be instituted in every country ; 
but he found that Pope no longer alive, and the 



RAYMOND LULL. 327 

Papal throne vacant. Even when he made a second 
journey to Rome with the same object, he did not 
succeed in attaining it. How earnest his desire was 
that schools should be founded amongst the monks, 
for the promotion of missions, is shown in these 
words, in which he laments that amidst so much 
pious zeal so little was done for the conversion of 
the infidels : " I see," he says, in his work on the 
contemplation of God, " pious monks, Franciscans* 
Dominicans, and others, daily distressing themselves 
on account of our failures and sins ; seeking, day 
and night by their preaching, to withdraw us from 
our sins, to lead us to what is good, and to produce 
love amongst us. I see monks fix their abode in 
desolate and desert places, in order not to be seduced 
by the sins which prevail amongst us ; and I see them 
plough and till the ground, in order to maintain 
themselves and the poor ; I see them rise at mid- 
night to sing Thy praises, Lord. I see hermits 
fly all the vanities of this world, retire to mountains 
and iininhabited places, eat herbs, abandon all the 
pleasures of this world, and pass all their life in 
loving and praising Thee, O Lord, in praying to 
Thee, and in the contemplation of Thy goodness 
and holiness. I see monks and nuns renoimce this 
world, in order to be made partakers of glory in 
the next ; and although they endure many suffer- 
ings and toils in their bodies, yet they thus escape 
much anguish and want, which we men of the 
world endure in our souls, because we are of the 
world, and love the world. Yet, whithersoever I 



328 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

look, and wherever I search, I find scarcely one, 
who, from love to Thee, O Lord, is ready to meet 
the martyr's death, as Thou hast done from love 
to us. It seems to me, that it would be reasonable 
that monks should learn various languages, that 
they might go forth, and from love to Thee offer 
up their lives : since in these days we see many 
monks of holy life and great wisdom. I pray 
Thee, Lord, let me also see, in my time, that they 
found institutions wherein to learn divers languages, 
in order to be able to preach to the heathen. 
Lord of glory, when will that blessed day arrive, 
when I shall see that thy holy monks are so inflamed 
with zeal to praise Thee, that they go forth into 
foreign lands in order to bear witness to Thy Holy 
Trinity, Thy blessed Incarnation, and Thy bitter 
Passion ? That were a glorious day, a day on which 
the fervour of piety would return, with which the 
holy Apostles went to death for their Lord Jesus 
Christ.' , 

As Raymond Lull was not able to institute, as 
he wished, an association for this holy enterprise, he 
felt himself constrained to go forth alone amongst 
the infidels, and in the year 128Y he sailed to 
Genoa, in order to cross thence to Northern Africa. 
As people had heard so much of the remarkable 
change that had taken place in him, of his fervent 
zeal for the conversion of the infidels, and of his 
new, and according to his idea, so promising method 
of conversion, his project excited high expectations. 
But he had yet many a severe conflict to pass 



RAYMOND LULL, 329 

through ; the natural man asserted his power in 
him. The same imagination which was filled with 
enrapturing images of the holy cause which in- 
spired him, in which the glory of his inward life 
was mirrored, could also be set in motion by the 
natural man, and reflect images of another kind ; 
the terror of the natural heart could also be mir- 
rored in it. Thus it would operate in various ways 
on Raymond Lull, according as it was in the ser- 
vice of the higher or the lower power. Already 
was the ship which was to convey him ready for 
departure, already were his books packed up in it, 
when his fervid imagination pictured to him so 
strongly the fate which awaited him amongst the 
Mohammedans — whether a torturing death, or a life- 
long captivity — that he could not prevail on him- 
self to go on board the ship. But when she had 
sailed, fierce torments of conscience seized him, 
that he had been so unfaithful to the holy pur- 
poses which God had awakened in him, and had 
given so great a scandal to the believers in Genoa. 
A severe illness was the consequence of this in- 
ward strife. Yrhilst he had thus much to suffer 
both in body and soul, he heard that a ship had 
arrived in the harbour, which was on the point of 
sailing for Tunis. Although he seemed to be 
nearer death than life, he caused himself to be 
carried on board with his books. But as his 
friends deemed it impossible that he could bear 
the voyage in such a state, full of anxiety they 
sent and fetched him back. His health, however, 



330 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

was not to be restored by any bodily care, for the 
root of the disease lay in his soul. When there- 
fore, some time after this, he heard of another 
ship bound for Tunis, nothing could prevent him 
from being earned on board. And when the ship 
had set sail, he soon felt himself delivered from 
the burden which weighed on his conscience ; for 
he found himself in his element — he was fulfilling 
the vocation which he was assured of being from 
God. With health of soul he was also restored 
to health of body. He who narrates these inci- 
dents in Raymond Lull's life, expresses himself 
thus : " That health of conscience which under 
this beclouding of his soul he believed himself to 
have lost, he suddenly recovered, rejoicing in the 
Lord on account of this merciful illumination of 
the Holy Ghost, together with the restoration of 
his suffering body." To the amazement of all his 
fellow-voyagers, in a few days he found himself as 
well and strong as he had ever been in his life. 

When, at the close of the year 1291, or at the 
beginning of the year 1292, he arrived at Tunis, he 
assembled the Mohammedan doctors, and declared 
to them that he was come in order to institute a 
comparison between Christianity, with which he 
was thoroughly acquainted, and which he had ex- 
cellent arguments to defend, and Mohammedanism. 
If he found the arguments in favour of Mohammed- 
anism the stronger, he would become a convert to 
it. A great number of Mohammedan doctors as- 
sembled, hoping to succeed in converting him to 



RAYMOND LULL. 331 

Moliamme danism ; and he disputed with them. But 
one of the Saracen doctors, who was full of fanati- 
cism, directed the attention of the king to the 
danger which threatened the Mohammedan faith 
from the proselyting zeal of Raymond, and pro- 
cured an edict of death against him. He was 
thrown into prison and already sentenced to death, 
when one of the Saracen doctors themselves, who 
was more unprejudiced and wise than the rest, in- 
terceded for him. He commended the spirit of 
Raymond, and said, that as they should admire 
the zeal of a Mohammedan who ventured amongst 
the Christians to convert them to the true faith, so 
also they could not refrain from honouring in the 
Christian a similar zeal for the diffusion of the re- 
ligion which he believed to be true. These repre- 
sentations caused Raymond's sentence to be softened 
from death to banishment. When he left the prison 
he had much ill-treatment to suffer from the fa- 
natical people. He was then conveyed to the Ge- 
noese ship in which he came, and which was again 
on the point of departure; and it was signified to 
him at the same time, that if he was seen ao-ain hi 
the territory of Tunis, he would be stoned to death. 
But as he hoped by continuing his labours to con- 
vert many of the Saracen doctors with whom he 
had disputed, and as his desire for the salvation of 
then* souls was so strong, he could not make up 
his mind to see this hope so soon frustrated. Gladly 
would he have sacrificed his life at this price. He 
suffered the ship to which they had conveyed him 



332 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

to set sail, proceeded to another, and watched for 
an opportunity of returning thence unobserved to 
Tunis. In the month of September, 1292, whilst 
he was thus lying in the bay of Tunis, he had 
composure of mind enough to labour at a scientific 
book. After having waited there three months in 
vain, he at length departed in the ship and re- 
paired to Naples. There he lingered many years, 
delivering lectures on his original system of philoso- 
phy, until the pious hermit, Peter of Murrhone, — - 
who had become Pope, under the name of Celestin 
V., — revived his hope of at length accomplishing 
what he had so long desired — the promotion of 
missionary enterprise. But Celestin's reign was 
too brief, and his successor, Boniface VIII. , was too 
indifferent to the interests of religion, for this hope 
to be realized. 

During his sojourn in Borne with that object, in 
the year 1296, Baymond Lull composed a book 
which was also connected with his interest in mis- 
sions, in which he sought to state the fundamental 
truths of Christianity in an incontrovertible manner. 
If he esteemed his arguments too highly, it was the 
strength of his faith which caused him to rely on 
them so confidently. We cannot but sincerely ad- 
mire the firmness of his conviction that there must 
be no dissension in the soul of man — that the truth, 
which was the highest thing for him, must corre- 
spond to all the wants of his spirit, and be in harmony 
with his reason and his heart. He says at the close 
of this book, "We have composed this treatise that 



RAYMOND LULL. 333 

believing and devout Christians may perceive that, 
whereas the doctrines of no other sect can be proved 
true by its adherents, and none can reasonably assail 
the Christian faith, the Christian faith on the con- 
trary can not only be defended against all its foes, 
but proved to demonstration. Thus inspired by a 
fervent zeal for the faith, and convinced that no- 
thing can stand against the truth which is stronger 
than all things, may they seek by the force of argu- 
ment, and by the help and strength of God, to lead 
back the infidels to the way of truth, so that the 
glorious name of the Lord Jesus, which is yet un- 
known in most countries and amongst most nations, 
may be manifested and may obtain universal 
homage. This method of converting the infidels is 
easier than all others. For it must seem hard to 
them to abandon their faith for an unknown re- 
ligion ; but who will not feel himself constrained to 
exchange falsehood for truth, the self-contradictory 
for the self-evident ?" And finally he adds, 
'•Wherefore we humbly pray the pope and the 
cardinals to adopt this method ; for of all the 
schemes for the conversion of the infidels and the 
re-conquest of the promised land, this which is most 
according to love is the easiest and the quickest, — 
as much mightier than other ways and methods, as 
spiritual weapons are stronger than carnal." " This 
treatise," he writes, " was completed at Rome in the 
year 1296, on the eve of the Feast of John the 
Baptist, the forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
May he intercede with our Lord, that as he himself 



334 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

was the herald of the light, and pointed to Him 
who is the true light, and as in his time grace had 
its beginning, so it may please the Lord Jesus 
Christ to diffuse new light over the world, that un- 
believers may walk in the brightness of this light, 
and be converted and go confidently forth with us 
to meet Him, the same Lord Jesus Christ, to whom 
be glory and praise forever and ever." 

As he was thus hindered from attaining his ob- 
ject in Rome, he laboured through a series of years 
wherever occasion called him. He sought to con- 
vince the Saracens and Jews on the island of 
Majorca by his arguments. He went to the island 
of Cyprus and thence to Armenia, endeavouring to 
restore the various divided parties of the Oriental 
Church to orthodoxy. He undertook all these 
things alone, only accompanied by one attendant, 
without being able to gain the support he desired 
from the powerful and influential. In the intervals 
of his journeys, he delivered lectures on his system 
at the French and Italian universities, and wrote 
books. 

Either in the year 1306 or 1307 he again sailed 
for North Africa, and proceeded to the city of 
Buggia, which was then the metropolis of a Mo- 
hammedan kingdom. He came boldly forward, 
and declared in Arabic that Christianity was the 
only true religion, and that Mohammedanism was 
false. This he was ready to prove to any one. A 
great multitude of people gathered around him, 
and he addressed exhortations to the assembly. 



RAYMOND LULL. 335 

Many were already raising their hands to stone him. 
when the Mufti, hearing of it, rescued him from the 
crowd, and caused him to be brought before him. 
He asked him how he could have acted so madly 
as publicly to stand forth against the doctrine of 
Mohammed : and if he did not know that according 
to the laws of the land he deserved to die. Ray- 
mond replied, " A true servant of Christ, who has 
himself experienced the truth of the faith, can fear 
no peril of death, if he may only lead souls to sal- 
vation." Thereupon they entered into a disputation 
on the relation of both religions to each other. 
Raymond testified with confidence for his faith. It 
was at length decided, according to his proposition, 
that both parties should write a book in defence of 
their respective religions, and that it should then be 
shown who won the victory by the arguments which 
each brought forward. Raymond composed such 
a book, and sent it to the Mufti, in order that he 
and the other wise men might test the book and 
reply to it. In a few days an edict was issued, 
banishing Raymond from the country, and he was 
immediately conveyed by the Saracens to a ship 
which was bound for Genoa. Not far from Pisa 
this ship was wrecked, part of the voyagers perished 
in the waves, and the rest were stripped of every- 
thing. Ravmond rescued himself, losing all his 
books and property. At Pisa, he wrote down from 
memory what he had stated in his book in defence 
of Christianity. He sent this to the pope and the 
cardinals, and at its close once more lamented the 



336 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

lack of zeal for the conversion of the infidels. "The 
Saracens,'' he says, "write books against Christi- 
anity. I myself saw one when I lay in prison; 
they bring many arguments together to convert 
Christians to Mohammedanism. And as the minds 
of those Christians are not sufficiently grounded in 
knowledge to be able to discover the nullity of these 
arguments, the Saracens succeed by means of such 
arguments, with the promise of riches and wives, in 
converting many Christians to their law. The 
Christians do not trouble themselves about this, and 
will offer no assistance to those Mohammedans who 
become Christians ; and thus it happens, that where 
one Mohammedan becomes a Christian, ten Chris- 
tians and more become Mohammedans. Those in 
authority would do well to consider what the 
end of it will be. God is not to be constrained or 
mocked." 

And after speaking of the great peril which 
threatened Christendom from the infidels, he makes 
some propositions for defence. One was, that four 
or five convents should be founded in perpetuity, 
in which monks and learned secular priests who 
were ready to sacrifice their lives for the glory of 
God might learn the languages of the infidels, and 
then go forth into the whole world, as Christ had 
commanded, and preach the Gospel. The second 
proposition referred to the union of the various re- 
ligious orders of knighthood into one, for the re- 
covery of the lands wrested from Christendom by 
the infidels ; with a further scheme how best to 



RAYMOND LULL. 33*7 

effect this. In the year 1308, in the month of 
April, he completed this book in the Dominican 
monastery, at Pisa. That which he had so often 
recommended in the book just quoted, he at length 
accomplished at the Council of Vienne, in the year 
1311 ; when a decree was issued by the pope for 
the institution of colleges for the Oriental lan- 
guages, requiring that at the Universities of Paris, 
Oxford, and Salamanca, as well as in all cities 
where the Papal court was represented, profes- 
sorial chairs should be founded for Arabic, He- 
brew, and Chaldee, in order to promote the con- 
version of the Jews and Saracens. As regards 
the other proposition, Raymond became even more 
convinced that the infidels were not to be over- 
come by the swords of Christians, but to be won 
by the force of truth ; that Christians must not 
bring death amongst the heathen, but rather be 
ready to sacrifice their own lives in order to lead 
them to salvation. He says in his work " On the 
Contemplation of God," in which he reviews the 
various classes of Christendom and exposes their 
failings, " I see many knights cross the sea to the 
Promised Land, imagining that they can subdue it 
by force of anns : but it ends in their all being- 
swept away without attaining their object. Where- 
fore it appears to me that the Holy Land is to be 
won in no other way than that, Lord Christ, by 
which thou and thy Apostles did win it — by love 
and prayer, by the shedding of their tears and 

their blood. Since the Holv Sepulchre and the 
22 



338 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

Promised Land can better be recovered by preach- 
ing than by force of arms, let pious spiritual he- 
roes go forth, filled with the grace of the Holy 
Spirit. May they go thither to bear witness to thy 
sufferings before the infidels, and from love to Thee 
to pour out the last drop of their blood, as Thou 
didst do from love to them. So many knights and 
noble princes have journeyed to that land across 
the sea to conquer it, that if this method pleased 
thee, Lord, they would surely have wrested it from 
the Saracens long ago. The pious should there- 
fore perceive that Thou dost daily wait to see them 
do from love to Thee what Thou hast done from 
love to them. And they may be certain that if 
they expose themselves to the martyr's death from 
love to Thee, Thou wilt prosper them in all that 
they shall undertake in this world to Thy praise. " 
And in another passage in this book, he says, "Be- 
cause Christians and Saracens are involved in a 
spiritual war on account of the faith, a carnal war- 
fare is the consequence ; whence many are wound- 
ed, taken captive, or slain, which would not happen, 
if there were no such war; whosoever therefore, 
O Lord, desires to establish peace between Chris- 
tians and Saracens — whosoever desires that the 
great evils which result from this war should 
cease, must first put an end to the bodily conflict, 
that this outward peace may be a preparation for 
spiritual peace. And when the spiritual strife shall 
end, then will peace and concord reign amongst 
them, in that they will be of one faith. For be- 



RAYMOND LULL. 339 

cause, Lord, the Christians have no outward 
peace with the Saracens, they do not venture to 
dispute with them concerning the faith ; but could 
they do this, they might, by the force of truth 
and the grace of the Holy Spirit, lead them to the 
way of truth. Heavenly Father, Father of all 
ages ! When Thou didst send thy Son into the 
world, causing Him to appear in our human na- 
ture, He and His disciples were outwardly at peace 
with the Jews and Pharisees ; for they took no 
man captive, they put none to death, they con- 
strained none of the unbelievers to follow them by 
bodily force. As therefore thou, Lord, and thy dis- 
ciples, did not fight with carnal weapons, although 
assailed with such, it is surely reasonable that 
Christians should ever remember this and ever 
seek to maintain outward peace with the Saracens 
in order to glorify thee, who vanquishing the flesh 
didst bring spiritual peace into the world. But 
since the fervour and devotion which there was in 
elder times in Apostles and holy men is well-nigh 
extinguished in us and in the whole world, and love 
and piety have grown cold, therefore is it that 
Christians rather spend their strength in carnal 
than in spiritual warfare, and from the dread of 
bodily strife will not go forth to seek spiritual 
peace as ye did seek it with tears and sighs, pour- 
ing out your blood and enduring a bitter death for 
the glory of God." " Thou true light," he says, 
" Light of all lights, since Thy grace has blessed 
Christians beyond infidels in giving them the true 



840 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

faith, they are in duty bound to carry forth the 
true faith amongst the infidels, But because we, 
O Lord, are occupied with rain things, and forget 
our bounden duty to love, and help, and guide the 
infidels, so that through our fault they remain in 
the darkness of unbelief; on this account, Lord, 
will they complain to thee at the day of judg- 
ment of this, our wrong to them — that we preach 
not to them, neither instruct them, that they may 
abandon their error. And they who have nothing 
wherewith to excuse themselves against this, shall 
incur damnation. If, Lord," he adds, "those 
churches which are built of wood, and stone, and 
earth, are beautiful, because they contain many 
beautiful pictures, — far more beautiful would be 
that holy Church which consists of the spirits of 
just men, if there were those in it who, knowing 
various languages, would go forth through all lands 
to lead the heathen to glorify Thee." "Blessed," 
he says, " are all those who, from love to Thee, O 
Lord, give alms of their goods ; they help others 
with that which thou hast given them, and happy 
may he esteem himself whom thou dost help. But 
far more blessed are they, who offer up themselves 
amongst the heathen, and in proclaiming the way 
of truth become martyrs. Mightier help wilt Thou 
bestow on them." 

He is constantly lamenting, that men should 
seek the Lord in outward things and endeavour to 
glorify Him by them alone, and He points from the 
outward to the inward. " He who will find thee, 



RAYMOND LULL. 341 

Lord/' he says, '"'needs not to abandon his coun- 
try, his friends, and his kindred, for he may find 
thee close at hand, and win thee in Iris own home/' 
"We see/' he says, "how pilgrims go to seek 
Thee in distant lands, and Thou meanwhile art so 
near, that whosoever will may find Thee in his 
own chamber, Why, therefore, are many so igno- 
rant that they go to seek Thee in distant lands, 
and yet carry the devil with them, in that they are 
laden with sins ? The things which a man would 
find he must seek diligently, and seek in the place 
where they may be found. If, therefore, the pil- 
grims would find Thee, ihey must seek Thee dili- 
gently, and seek Thee not in beautiful images and 
pictures in the churches, but in the hearts of holy 
men, in which Thou dwellest day and night. If 
thy Image on the Cross is fair to see, far fairer is 
thine image in holy men who love thy truth ; for 
the form of such an one is more akin to thy hu- 
manity than the images of the Cross." " Often," 
he says, " have I sought thee on the Cross, and 
my bodily eyes could not find thee there, although 
they found there thine Image and the likeness of 
thy death. And when I could not find thee with 
my bodily eyes, I sought thee with the eyes of my 
soul ; and whilst my soul thought of thee she 
found thee ; and when I f und thee, my heart be- 
gan at once to glow with love, my eyes overflowed 
with tears, and my mouth could only speak thy 
praise." This fervour of love left him no rest, until 
summoning his last strength he had sacrificed his 



342 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

life in 'the proclamation of the Gospel: "As the 
needle/' he says, " naturally turns to the north 
when it is touched by the magnet, — so must Thy 
servant turn whithersoever he may praise, and 
magnify, and serve his God and Lord ; willing, 
nay longing, from love to Him, to endure bitter 
pain and heavy trials here in this world." " Men 
who die of old age," he says, " die from lack of 
natural heat, and, therefore, would Thy servant, if 
it pleases thee, not die such a death, but die from 
the fervour of love, since Thou didst die thus. Often 
have I trembled with cold and terror, — but when 
will that day and hour come when my body shall 
tremble from the warm glow of love and longing 
to die for my Saviour ?" 

We will, in conclusion, collect some short axioms 
in which the deep fervent spirit of this man ex- 
presses itself, — words which contain in them a whole 
world, and into which we must ever dive more 
deeply in order rightly to understand them, and 
thus shall discover more and more in them. " He 
who loves not, lives not ; he who lives by the Life 
cannot die.' 7 " He who gives his friend love gives 
him more than gold. He who gives not, lives not. 
He who gives love, gives what he gives to himself." 
" All gold is not to be compared with one sigh of 
holy desire. The more a man desires, the more he 
lives. To be destitute of desire is to die. Long 
and thou wilt live. He is not poor who desires ; 
he lives sadly who lives without desire." " A holy 
hermit stands higher in the sight of God than a 



RAYMOND LULL. 343 

king upon his throne. Elevate thy understanding 
and thou wilt elevate thy love — heaven is not so 
hiovh as the love of a holv man. The more thou 
labourest to soar on high, the more thou wilt soar." 
He perceived that man has in his own being the 
key to all things. " He who will search and under- 
stand the mysteries of other men's hearts," he says, 
" must first look into himself and his own nature. 
For as a mirror shows in itself the likeness of an- 
other object, so does a man comprehend the mys- 
teries which he seeks to know in others, by com- 
prehending his own nature." 

On the 14th of August, 1314, he once more 
sailed over to Africa. He repaired to. Buggia, and 
at first laboured there in secret amongst the little 
band, whom, during his last sojourn there, he 
had gained over to Christianity. He sought to 
strengthen their faith, and to lead them on in 
Christian knowledge. He might have continued 
to labour on a while in quietness : but he could not 
resist his longing for the martyr's death. He came 
forward publicly with the declaration that he was 
the same man who had formerly been banished 
from the country. He exhorted the people with 
menaces of the Divine vengeance, to abandon Mo- 
h amine danism. The Saracens fell furiously upon 
him, and after much ill usao-e lie was drao-o-ed out 
of the city and stoned by order of the king. Ac- 
cording to one account, some merchants from Ma- 
jorca obtained permission to remove the body of 
their countrvman from the heap of stones under 



344 MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

which it was buried, and carried it home to their 
native country. According to another narrative, 
they found some remains of life still existing in him, 
and succeeded in rekindling the dying embers ; but 
he died on the ship within sight of his native land. 
This was on the 13th of June, in the year 1315. 



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*£* Attention is particularly requested to the new Classified and Descriptive Cata- 
logue of Books, Tracts, &c, published for the M. E. Church, which can be readily 
obtained from the Agents, Messrs. Lane & Scott, No. 200 Mulberry-street, New- 
York, or from M«ssrs. Swormstedt & Power, corner of Main and Eighth-streets, 
Cincinnati. 



WORKS PUBLISHED BY LANE & SCOTT, 
200 Mulberry-street, New-York. 



Fletcher of Madeley, Life of. 

Life of John Fletcher, compiled from Wesley's Narrative, the 

Biographical Notes of Mr. Gilpin, from his own Letters, 

and other authentic Documents, many of which were never 

before published. By Joseph Benson. Sixth thousand. 

12nio., pp. S58. Muslin or sheep $0 65 

Many exemplary men have I known, holy in heart and life, within 
fourscore years ; but one equal to him I have not known, one 
so inwardly and outwardly devoted to God. — John Wesley. 

No age or country has ever produced a man of more fervent piety 
or more perfect charity ; no church has ever possessed a more 
apostolic minister. — Robert Southey. 

Mr. Fletcher was one of the holiest men that ever lived ; next to 
Mr. Wesley, he was the ablest advocate of the Methodist truths ; 
and no man ever adorned them by a purer life, or a more burn- 
ing, active love. — Thos. Jackson. 

A man mighty in the Scriptures, and full of the unction of God. — 
Dr. A. Clarke. 

Fletcher s Letters. 

Letters of the Rev. John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley. Ori- 
ginally edited by Rev. Melville Horne, Curate of Made- 
ley. With a Portrait of Mr. Fletcher. Third thousand. 
12mo., pp. 334. Muslin $0 65 

Such sweetness and devotion of love ; such heavenly unction, 
and so full of Christ — they are among the most affecting and 
engaging of devotional writings, and deserve a place with the 
letters of Doddridge, Cowper, and Newton. — N. Y. Evangelist. 

These letters are full of the spirit of piety. No man can read 
them, who has a spark of religion in his heart, without feeling 
his love enkindled to a flame.— Methodist Protestant. 

Fletcher's Letters are a transcript of his mind— a visible embodi- 
ment of his spirit, and cannot be too strongly studied, or too 
deeply imbibed. — Pittsburgh Christian Advocate. 

These eminently sweet and spiritual epistles have long been out 
of print in a separate form, and the agents have performed a 
good service to the Church in the issue of this beautiful edition. 
Every Sabbath-school library should be graced with this treasury 
of purity and piety. — Ziorfs Herald. 

Finley's Memorials of Prison Life. 

Memorials of Prison Life. By Rev. J. B. Finley, Chaplain 
to the Ohio State Prison. Edited by Dr. Tefft. 

12mo., pp.354. Muslin $0 75 



WORKS PUBLISHED BY LANE & SCOTT, 
200 Mulberry-street, New-York. 

Fletcher, (Mary.) Life of. 

Life of Mrs. Mary Fletcher, Consort and Relict of Rev. John 
Fletcher. Compiled from her Journal and other authentic 
Documents. By Henry Moobe. Eleventh thousand. 

12nio., pp. 298. Muslin or sheep $0 70 

Do. gilt edges 1 00 

The life of Mrs. Fletcher is too well known to require particular 
description, and too higldy valued to call for renewed recom- 
mendation. 

One principle, indeed, was evident throughout Mrs. Fletcher's 
long- life — full resignation to the will of God. Another leading 
trait in her character was faith. Her faith was strong: she 
" staggered not at the promises through unbelief." May her 
pure, sound, Scriptural faith prevail among those who may read 
her memoirs ! — Wesley an Magazine. 



Old Humphrey' *s TT orhs. 



Half Horn-s with Old Humphrey. Revised by Rev. D. P. 

KlDDEE. 

12mo., pp. 278. Muslin SO 60 

Old Humphrey is a universal favourite ; he is capable of making 
the dullest subjects interesting. What is still better, he turns 
every subject to a religious account. No essay of his fails to 
exhibit the excellence or the obligations of true piety. Such 
writings may be recommended with confidence for the use of 
families. 

BranucelL (TT illiam,) Life of. 

Memoir of the Life and Ministry of Mr. William Braniwell, 
lately an itinerant Methodist Preacher ; with Extracts from 
his extensive and interesting Correspondence. By James 
Sigstox. Fourteenth thousand. 

18mo., pp. 341. Muslin or sheep 80 40 

It is valuable for the information it gives us of his true yet pain- 
ful conversion, the conduct of his parents when he became a 
Methodist, his first interview with ?\Ir. Wesley, his first attempt 
to preach, his receiving of the blessing of full sanctification, 
his practice of ecclesiastical discipline, his spirit of prayer, his 
efficient manner of conducting prayer-meetings, his temptations 
to give up preaching, his persecution, his treatment of his chil- 
dren, his preaching especially of the doctrine of entire holiness, 
his success and his end. He v.- as a '• man of God.*' God's cause 
was his cause. — Christian Guardian. 



WORKS PUBLISHED BY LANE & SCOTT, 

200 Mulberry-street, New-York. 



Watson's Conversations. 

Conversations for the Young, designed to promote the profit- 
able Reading of the Holy Scriptures. By Bichakd Watson. 

12mo., pp. 300. Muslin or sheep $0 60 

Though this work is designed for the benefit of young people, 
there are few adults who may not derive instruction from a se- 
rious perusal of it. It is worthy of a place in every Christian 
family and in every Sunday school in the land. 

The plan of the work is new, and is attended with many advan- 
tages. A young person is introduced, who has kome knowledge 
of the contents of the Bible, whose disposition is serious and 
inquisitive, and who proposes questions for his own satisfaction 
on the principal facts and doctrines of Scripture. These call 
forth corresponding replies, and give the work a very interest- 
ing and miscellaneous character. 

The sacred books are noticed in order. Difficulties are proposed 
and solved ; the objections of unbelievers are stated, and re- 
futed ; an immense number of inquiries relating to the chro- 
nology, antiquities, phraseology, prophecies, and miracles of 
Scripture, are proposed and answered ; and the whole has a 
direct bearing on the momentous subject of personal religion. 

Adams s Minister of Christ for the Times. 

Notes of the Minister of Christ for the Times, drawn from 
the Holy Scriptures. By Chaeles Adams. 

16mo., pp. 246. Muslin $0 50 

An effort is made in this work to delineate, with simplicity and 
brevity, the Scriptural picture of a Christian minister for the 
times as a man, as a student, as a preacher, and as a pastor. 
This work is full of thought, and seeds of thought, as well as 
of stirring practical appeals for an earnest and effective minis- 
try. It will be wideiy read, we trust, by both preachers and 
laymen. There are home truths in it for both. 

Diary and Almanac for 1851. 

A Pocket Diary for 1851, containing an Almanac, and Blank 
Pages for General Memoranda, and space for Records for 
Every Day in the Year. 

24mo., pp. 192. Eoan, tucks $0 30 

Do. gilt edges 40 

We hail its appearance with great pleasure, and we commend it 
as one of the neatest and most convenient pocket diaries that 
has been published. — Western Christian Advocate. 



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WOEKS PUBLISHED 3Y LANE & SCOTT, 

200 Mulberrv -street, New-York. 



C alder s Life of Episcopius. 

Memoir of Simon Episcopius, the celebrated pnpil of Ar- 
minins. and subsequently Doctor of Divinity, and Pro- 
fessor of Theology in the University of Leyden ; who 
was condemned by the Synod of Dort as a dangerous 
Heretic, and sentenced to perpetual Banishment by the 
civil authorities of Holland, for holding the Doctrines 
of General Redemption. To which is added a Brief Ac- 
count of the Synod of Dort, &c. By Frederick Car- 
der. Fourth thousand. 

12mo., pp. 478. Muslin or sheep SO 70 

We congratulate our Church upon the presentation, from our 
press, of an excellent biography of this eminent pupil of 
the illustrious Arminius. If there be anything ennobling 
in the contemplation of resplendent character, anything 
grateful to the feelings in rescuing from undeserved obscu- 
rity, or cruel imputations, names to which the world lias 
long been unjust, or anything praiseworthy in the gratitude 
we delight to render to those, who, in the hour of disgrace, 
danger, and death, stand forth as defenders of truth and 
liberty — dear to our hearts assuredly should be the name of 
Simon Episcopius, one of the noblest spirits which a land 
rich in the glory of her sons has produced. 

Strickland's History of Missions. 

History of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
from the Organization of the Missionary Society to the 
Present Time. By Rev. W. P. Strickland, A. M." With 
an Introduction by Pvev. B. F. Tefft, D. D., and a Por- 
trait of Rev. X. Bangs, D. D. 

12mo., pp. 338. Muslin $0 90 

Like the author's History of the Bible Society, an invaluable 
work. — Ladies' Repository. 

Giles {Charles) Narrative. 

Pioneer : a Narrative of the Nativity, Experience, Trav- 
els, and Ministerial Labours of Rev. Charles Giles ; 
with Incidents, Observations, and Reflections. Second 
thousand. 

12mo., pp. 334. Muslin or sheep $0 50 



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WORKS PUBLISHED BY LiLNE & SCOTT, 
203 Mulberrv-street, New-York. 



Emory, (Bishop.) Life of. 

The Life of John Emory, D. D., one of the Bishops of the 
Methodist Episcopal ( .'hurch. By his Eldest Sox. With 
a Portrait. Second thousand. 

8vo., pp. 380. Plain sheep $1 00 

Plain calf 1 25 

Calf gilt 150 

Calf extra 175 

This is a model of biography. It furnishes a nan ative of facts, 
ample without prolixity, and graphic without exaggeration. 
Bishop Emory, it is generally acknowledged, was a man of 
more varied intellectual powers and acquirements than any 
man yet elevated to the Methodist Episcopacy; and the 
growth of his mind, as well as the steady progress which 
he made in the confidence of the whole Church, from his 
first appointment as a preacher, down to the day of his death, 
are clearly exhibited in this work. It furnishes also inci- 
dental, but able discussions of some of the most important 
points of Methodist history and polity. No Methodist preach- 
er's library can be complete without it. 

Centenary of Wesley an Methodism. 

Centenary of YVesleyan Methodism: a brief Sketch of 
the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Wesleyan 
Methodist Societies throughout the World. By Thomas 
Jackson, President of the British Conference. With a 
Portrait of John Wesley. Sixth thousand. 

12mo., pp. 280. Muslin or sheep $0 50 

We may say that, unpretending as is its character, it is never- 
theless a volume which only Mr. Jackson could have writ- 
ten. Peculiar qualifications were required for it, and those 
peculiar qualifications were all found in him. — Wesleyan 
Magazine. 

In perusing this work I have been greatly delighted. I think 
the author has laid the whole Methodist family, and, indeed, 
the whole Christian Church, under many obligations. Every 
soul who has been profited by the influence of Methodism 
ought to read this volume, give glory to God, and set out 
afresh for heaven. — Bishop Heddixg. 

That admirable book, the Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism, 
ought to be in the hands, the knowledge of its contents in 
the minds, and the spirit of it in the hearts of you all. — 
James Montgomery. — Missionary Address. 



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